


Saved

by b4rd-of-l1f3 (knight0fd00m)



Series: Scourge Sisters [1]
Category: Homestuck
Genre: Abusive Relationships, Alternate Universe - College/University, Car Accidents, Character Death, Court, Depression, F/F, Major Character Injury, Mentioned Bulimia, Past Child Abuse, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Rape/Non-con Elements, Self-Harm, Smut, seriously I turn Gamzee into an asshole
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-16
Updated: 2014-08-03
Packaged: 2018-02-09 03:42:02
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 20
Words: 23,709
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1967622
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/knight0fd00m/pseuds/b4rd-of-l1f3
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>====> Terezi: Enter<br/>Terezi transfers from her college to get away from an abusive ex boyfriend when she meets a whole new set of friends. Soon after, her ex finds and attacks her. Her entire world is flipped on it's head, and her world is becomes a flurry of court dates and flashbacks.<br/>====> Vriska: Enter<br/>After meeting a strange blind girl at school and saving her life, her world is also flipped upside down. Now, her life suddenly revolves around this blind kid that she hardly knew and constantly bickered with.<br/>------<br/>NOTE: I am re-writing this series! Stay tuned to read the updated version (once I finish it, look over it, and post it!)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Terezi: Meet people

**Author's Note:**

> SO I wrote a story for a pairing that I'm so obsessed with I can't even deal with it. (OTP in every quadrant whoops) I'm also writing a sequel to it, because I couldn't get enough of writing this one. I hope you guys enjoy it, and a lot of what Terezi goes through in this story, but not all of it, is drawn from my own experiences, just so you know.
> 
> EDIT: HI GUYS! I figured I should let everyone who goes to read this know that I'm in the process of re-writing this fanfiction and after I'm done with that I'll be re-writing the second part to this series. Currently it's going fantastically! I'll be posting it once I'm done with this series so if you want to read this one and Through Hell and Back and /then/ the re-write to compare or if you just want to read the re-write, go right ahead! :)  
> I also should mention that I'm not glorifying mental illness at all, I suffer from a lot of them and it's no joke. If you are triggered by anything in the tags, PLEASE DO NOT READ THIS.  
> In conclusion, thank you guys for reading! Means a lot to me :) Feel free to let me know what you guys think!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> EDIT: I went through, re-read, and corrected so many errors that my beta reader and I didn't catch. I hope the story flows better now and it reads easier!!! Thank you guys for reading and I hope you enjoy!

Chapter 1: Terezi: Meet people

 

I hated new places.  
I swung my cane back and forth, and I knew people were parting around me like I had parted the red sea or something. It was almost annoying.  
I could sense it, their curiosity and pity for me. The new girl, the blind girl.  
I also knew that half this crowd were probably freshman. Technically, it was my first year at this university, so I knew where I was going about as much as the next person, only it was worse cause, ya know, I couldn’t see.  
I wasn’t helpless though, I knew for the most part where I was going. One of the orientation leaders showed me around this morning, and I was just orienting myself with the campus. My dorm was a single in the more expensive dorms, generously paid for by my mother who was a famous prosecutor. I was soon to follow in her footsteps, as I was going into the pre-law program soon.  
I felt someone tap on my shoulder and a familiar man’s voice spoke, “Hey, you’re in the middle of the fucking walkway, and we got a friend in a wheelchair trying to get through.”  
He sounded irritated, and like he didn’t give a shit that I was blind.  
I rolled my eyes behind my red glasses and obnoxiously stepped to the side, “Well aren’t you friendly?”  
He paused for a moment.  
“I’m glaring at you,” he practically growled.  
“I kinda figured. I’m blind not stupid.”  
He sighed irritably, “I’m just trying to get my friend to registration.”  
I heard a nervous voice speak up, “It’s alright Karkat, she did move.”  
Wait, I know a Karkat…  
I leaned on my cane toward him, “The nervous one is right, I did move. Now is there anything else you want to waste my time with shouty?”  
I heard a female voice laugh, “I like this one! She isn’t completely full of shit like just about everyone else I’ve met that has a disability!”  
“Does that include you Vriska?” Karkat snapped.  
She scoffed, “Of course not, I said just about not everyone.”  
She had a disability too? I wondered curiously what it was.  
“I’d have to disagree with that statement!” he snapped.  
I laughed, “Calm down shouty, and I’m assuming that I’d be correct in calling you shorty too.”  
“How the fuck would you even know how tall I am if you can’t see?” he barked.  
I snickered, “I have my ways.”  
Vriska snorted, “You’re right by the way, he’s at least half a foot shorter than you.”  
I wasn’t short or tall, maybe five foot six? I laughed again, “I pretty much figured. Short and angry aren’t we?”  
“Shut up!” he yelled.  
Both me and the Vriska girl laughed, but she managed to speak first, “Come on Karkat, let’s go. I think Taaaaaaaavros is getting uncomfortable.”  
The wheelchair bound kid stayed silent, but I could feel his unease. I shrugged, “I’m heading that way if you don’t another person tagging along.”  
Karkat started to object, but who I assumed was Tavros spoke up, “I’m, uh, sure we could always use a new friend, right Karkat?”  
He grumbled something unintelligible and I heard Vriska shrug along with the clink of metal, “I don’t care.”  
Metal huh?  
I walked over to where she was standing and poked her left arm, which, as I suspected, was metal.  
“Prosthetic arm eh?”  
She shrugged again, “Yeah, what’s it to ya?”  
I laughed manically, “So you are messed up like me!”  
She snorted, “At least I don’t flaunt it.”  
“It’s kinda hard to hide the fact I can’t see. I’m pretty sure it’s kinda hard to hide a robotic arm too.”  
She snorted, “It is, but again I don’t flaunt it.”  
I laughed. These guys were going to be fun.

~====<3====~

I heard the incessant beeping of my alarm clock interrupting my dream. What was it about again?  
All I knew was that in my dreams I was still blind, but I could taste and smell color. It was odd. I know I could hear that girl from yesterday, Vriska, and the shouty boy, Karkat.  
The girl had blue eyes, black hair, and a black shirt with a blue symbol on it. Not blue, cerulean specifically. She also had a black jacket, and a shiny silver metal arm.  
The boy had cherry red eyes, my favorite flavor next to teal, and a black long sleeved shirt with a grey symbol on it.  
I sat up, rubbing my head. The dreams I had have no significance. As long as he isn’t in it, I’m okay.  
Of course, the thought of him brought back the memory of blow after blow he would leave on me despite every effort I made to fight back, every word he would belittle me with.  
I sighed, I transferred here to get away from him, and now he is not around. I didn’t have to worry about it anymore.  
I got up and brushed my teeth and took a shower. Some might wonder how I could possibly take care of myself in my own room by myself, but they also have to realize I’ve been blind since I was 8 years old. I’ve been blind for almost 12 years, I’ve gotten used to it.  
I pressed a button on my watch and it told me the time, 7:45. I had 15 minutes to get to class.  
I walked out of the dorm and walked down the sidewalk to the other side of campus where my first class was, Criminal Law.  
I took Intro to Criminal Justice at my former school, and that credit transferred over so I was in this class along with the rest of the sophomores.  
That class was rather interesting, for the first day anyway. My class afterward was Introduction to Sociology. I walked in and started to find a seat when I heard a voice call over, “Hey! Terezi right?”  
I snapped my head into the direction of where I heard Tavros’ voice, “Tavros?”  
“Yeah! You can, uh, sit over by me and Vriska if you want.”  
I nodded and walked over, bumping into a chair or two on the way there. I sat next to Tavros, and dropped my book bag on the floor with a thunk. That thing weighed at least 20 pounds.  
“Teeeeeeeerezi,” Vriska drawled. “Why do you look like you got hit by a truck this morning?”  
“Why do you care?”  
“I don’t, I’m curious.”  
At least she was straight forward about it.  
“Well it’s none of your concern Serket.”  
“Come onnnnnnnn! I wanna know.”  
“Too bad.”  
Tavros sighed and the teacher began class. Something told me that this class was going to be very interesting.


	2. Vriska: Investigate the new girl

Chapter 2: Vriska: Investigate the new girl

 

====> Be Vriska

 

“So you’re telling me you don’t even know where this girl is from? You practically know everything about everyone Nepeta,” I groaned.  
She shook her head, “I think Equius might have known her in grade school but he moved everywhere and you know that Vriska.”  
I sighed, my neighbor didn’t become my neighbor until high school. His mom was in the marines and then died shortly after they moved into my area in Skaia.  
“She may be from Prospit, I don’t know, Equius isn’t sure if he knew her from Prospit or Derse.”  
I nodded, “Alright, hmmmmmmmm.”  
“Why are you so interested in her anyway Vriskers?” she had her head tilted to one side and I smirked, “Just doing some reconnaissance.”  
She sighed, “Okay, whatever you say. She’s in my math class, so I’ll purrobably end up getting to know her.”  
I grinned, “That’s great, tell me what you find out.”  
She sighed again, “Fine.”  
I said my goodbyes to her as her boyfriend, Equius, walked up and started questioning me about my arm. How it was, if I was greasing it right, if I was going to trek back to Skaia so his dad can do maintenance on it. It was a new model that even Equius didn’t know how to do maintenance on.  
I sighed and answered his pointless questions boredly before heading off to the dining commons.  
I was walking over to the usual table when I noticed that Terezi was sitting with Tavros, and Tavros was laughing about something she had said. This girl was popping up everywhere. It was the first day of classes and I’ve already seen her four times.  
I also noticed she was in the same building as me, down the hall actually. We left for class at about the same time around noon today. Nepeta said she had math with her, so she must have had that at 12:30, which was when I had Intro to Psychological Science.  
Personally, I wanted to be in the Navy. However I was hoping to get a degree in Criminal Justice first. Terezi was in my Criminal Law class this morning as well.   
The idea of sailing the seas on a ship just appealed to me a great deal. I always liked pirates, but doing something good with my life sounded good too. I wasn’t always a bitch.  
I walked over and sat down at the table after getting some food, dropping my back pack with a thunk on the chair next to me.   
“Hello Serket,” Terezi said without looking up.  
“Pyrope,” I greeted.  
Tavros was munching on some weird vegetarian dish he got, Terezi was eating pizza, and I had some weird pasta stuff that they had out. Usually the dining commons had decent food, but today not so much.  
Karkat plopped into the chair next to me with a huff. Terezi didn’t look up again and asked, “What’s wrong with you?”  
He glared at her, “Why do you give a shit?”  
“Figured it was worth asking, even though it seems like you’re always pissed.”  
I rolled my eyes and Tavros spoke up, “He’s not always mad…”  
Karkat sighed, “It’s just that I talked to a former friend of mine today and he’s transferring here. Said he had to deal with some unfinished business.”  
I shrugged, “This is bad why?”  
“Cause he went and fucked the girl I liked behind my back.”   
Terezi winced, which did not escape my notice. I tilted my head, this has to be interesting.  
“Happy now Vriska? That’s the end of the fucking story now can we please change the goddamn subject?” he was twice as pissed as usual.  
Terezi ate without speaking, and when she was done she left without us.  
Tavros looked confused, “Why’d she leave like that?”  
Karkat sighed, “I don’t know, I never really did know her well. Just well enough to have a crush on her in 9th grade.”  
The connection slammed together in my head, she was from Prospit! She went to school with Karkat and he’s from there. I wonder who this former friend is…  
I looked at Karkat, “Who is this former friend of yours again?”  
He glared at me, “Why do you give a shit?”  
“I don’t, I’m just curious.”  
He groaned and rolled his head back before turned his whole body to face me and he stared straight into my eyes, which was unnerving.   
“His name is Gamzee Makara, and he’s a fucking asshole.”


	3. Terezi: Freak the fuck out

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry about the short chapter!

Chapter 3: Terezi: Freak the fuck out.

 

I slammed my dorm room shut and leaned against it. No no no! He could not be coming here. He just can’t.  
It took me a few minutes to realize I was hyperventilating after I realized that I was getting really dizzy and I was sliding down the door.  
I sat against the door and my mind flashed back to a particular incident.

 

I walked into his house, which was trashed as always, and smelled like pot, as always.  
I sighed and walked over to his room, where he welcomed me with open arms. He hugged me too tight, with a pipe in one hand and a bottle of rum in the other. Thank God he wasn’t sober.  
I sat on his bed as he set his intoxicants down. No one was home, which was what I was afraid of when he invited me over. I didn’t have a choice but to go, he would have flipped his shit if I said no.  
He walked over and lightly pushed me onto my back and crawled on top of me, kissing my face and whispering how much he loved me. By now I knew it was a lie, but I couldn’t leave. He would kill me if I left. I would be beaten to death and dumped in an alley somewhere if I left.  
He did what he wanted and after, when I tried to find my clothes in a haze of despair and violation, he kicked me into the wall.  
I gasped in pain and ‘looked’ over at him, “What the hell was that for?”  
“Did I tell you you could get your dressin’ on?” he practically growled.  
I straightened up and stood, “Doesn’t give you the right to kick me you troll.”  
He punched me in the jaw and my head hit the wall. Fuck that hurt.  
The world spun, and the last thing I heard before I passed out was him walking toward me.  
I woke up in the hospital with him sitting next to me with his hand in mine. If this was a few months ago, the gesture would have been comforting, but now it’s not.  
The nurse came in and smiled at me, “Good to see you’re awake. You took quite a fall there Miss Pyrope. Mr. Makara here said you tripped and fell down the stairs?”  
I felt dread clutch my chest, I could tell the truth right?  
“Yeah, something like that,” I lied.  
Because not matter what I did, no matter how much I told myself I hated him, I couldn’t put him in prison. I couldn’t hurt him. I couldn’t put my life in danger. I couldn’t tell the truth of the matter.  
I loved him, and that’s what I hated myself most for.

 

I was sobbing by the end of the flashback, which was when I heard a knock on the door.  
` “Go away whoever the fuck you are!” I yelled through the door.  
“Is that how you treat people who try to come help you? Sheesh I know I’m not usually nice to people but goddamn.”  
What the hell was she doing here?  
“What do you want?”  
She scoffed, “I can hear you from my room two doors down.”  
“Well I’d be sorry to inconvenience you but I’m really not.”  
She sighed, “How about a mutual exchange of information? You tell me something, and I’ll tell you something. You tell me what’s wrong, and I’ll tell you why Tavros is wheelchair bound.”  
I thought about it for a second before thinking why the hell not. I stood, dried my unseeing eyes and opened the door and walked back over to my bed.  
She walked in, shut the door, and plopped onto my bed next to me.  
“Now would you care to explain why you have such an interest in what’s wrong with me?” I sighed.  
“I’m curious. Now, about that mutual exchange of information,” I could practically hear her smirking, but she sounded almost sad. What was up with her?  
“You know how Karkat said his friend was transferring here?”  
“Yeah.”  
I shook as I spoke, “He’s my ex. He’d beat me, force me to sleep with him, manipulated me, the whole figurative nine yards. I’m still reeling from it. I transferred here to get away from him. Your turn.”  
“Ouch, that’s rough. Okay, me and Tavros were together in high school, but then I was messing with him in the parking lot and shoved him. He got hit by a car. Paralyzed from the waist down. He almost died actually. He left me soon after, but I still feel really bad about it truth be told.”  
I would have stared at her if I could see, so I just nodded, “I’d probably feel bad too.”  
I heard the tell tale clink of metal that indicated that she was shrugging, “He isn’t mad about it anymore, or at least he doesn’t say he’s mad anymore. I still tease him relentlessly, but I still feel bad for putting him in a wheelchair and almost killing him.”  
I nodded, “Truth be told, when Karkat said Gamzee had unfinished business to attend to, I think he means to follow through with his threat from when I left him.”  
I heard her shift to look at me, “What threat?”  
I hesitated before speaking, “His threat to ‘motherfucking end me.’”


	4. Vriska: Advance or Abscond?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I felt bad that the previous chapter was so short so I posted this one too.

Chapter 4: Vriska: Advance or Abscond?

 

“So tell me, how did you guys meet anyway?”  
I was drilling her for more information the next day at dinner before Tavros and Karkat got there. Nepeta’s 4 to 5:05 class got canceled, so her and Equius would be joining us.  
She shrugged. She was still visibly upset about the whole thing, and she wasn’t acting the same as she did when she first met us. I almost had enjoyed her crazy antics and her poking fun at Karkat. Now she’s just been solemn and sad.  
“We were friends in middle school. He went off to be friends with Karkles for awhile, and then he hooked up with me,” she took a break to bite her apple. “Not a very interesting story.”  
I nodded and she scoffed, “If I knew he would be such an asshole to me I would have had my mom move us across town sooner.”  
“So your whole family moved? Because of one guy?”  
She looked up, well not looked but you get the idea, and seemed to drill holes into my face with her blind eyes, “He started harassing my sister to get ahold of me. My mom doesn’t know what happened exactly but I basically asked her if we could move over here to get away from people who were harassing me at school. I graduated and we moved.”  
“Who is your mom again?”  
“She’s known as Neophyte Redglare, or Prosecutor Redglare, because even though she’s relatively new she’s never lost a case and she’s known by her red glasses and piercing stare. You don’t wanna be at the end of her stare, it’s scary as hell.”  
“And you would know this how…”  
“I didn’t go blind until I was eight you ignorant fuck.”  
“Well excuse me! It’s not like I knew that,” I stared her down, but she couldn’t see that obviously.  
She sighed, “Why do you care about all this anyway?”  
“Why do you keep telling me about it?”  
“One, because you asked. Two, because I haven’t had any friends to talk to about any of it since I was a freshman in high school. I had a friend named Sollux for awhile, but he was mourning the death of his girlfriend Aradia for the last three years of high school to be much help.”  
My blood ran cold. Aradia? She knew Aradia?  
“You stopped talking, did you know her?” Fuck she’s sharp.  
“Yeah, I did. We didn’t like each other much,” I managed to say.  
“Why?”  
“She thought I was a bitch, I thought she was full of it.”  
She sighed, “I wasn’t really friend’s with her, I was better friends with Sollux.”  
I didn’t say anything, but nodded. I noticed she could tell what I did just by listening, so she probably heard my hair move or something.  
I mean, I had good hearing too, but her’s was ridiculously good.  
“How’d you know Aradia if you’re from here?”  
“Aradia’s from here originally, we grew up together,” was it hot in here or was it just me?  
“Why are you so choked up over her if you guys didn’t like each other?” oh god she had that sadistic smile on her face, oh god.  
I shook my head, “I didn’t like her no, but that doesn’t mean I don’t feel bad that she died.”  
She shrugged, “Enough to be choked up over it?”  
I sighed, “Mutual exchange of information. I tell you why, and you tell me how you went blind.”  
She shrugged again, “Fine by me.”  
“I was driving, without my seat belt like a dumbass, in Prospit to visit Tavros’ family at the beginning of my sophomore year. It was almost my birthday, November 8th, and his family wanted to get together for it for some god awful reason. He had moved from Prospit to Skaia when we had been younger. Anyway, I was driving, alone, and a car came out of fucking nowhere and I tried to hit the brakes, but my car sucks and she slammed into my right side. I went through the left window. It was deemed she was at fault for not looking before crossing, but her parents still wanted to charge me with vehicular homicide. She died at the scene. The girl was Aradia Megido.”  
Terezi looked like she was staring, with her jaw dropped open. She closed it, opened it like she was going to speak, and then closed it again. I felt guilt and regret churn in my stomach, “I lost my arm and my left eye went blind, I was lucky to survive. Her chest was crushed by the steering wheel.”  
She opened her mouth to speak again, closed it, and then finally spoke, “So that’s how she died. Sollux wouldn’t tell me. And so that’s how you lost your arm. I didn’t know you were blind in your left eye though, that’s news to me.”  
I nodded slowly, “I don’t make a habit of making it obvious.”  
She nodded, “My turn. I was in a bus accident when I was 8. I got a fuck ton of shattered glass in my eyes,” she removed her glasses to reveal a bunch of thin scars around her eyes that I couldn’t see through the red glare of her glasses. “A girl named Feferi died, her best friend, Eridan, kept screaming and screaming. He barely noticed he had shrapnel stuck in his side because she wouldn’t wake up. Nearly cut him in two.”  
I nodded, “I think I heard about that. Eridan moved over to Skaia. I had a small thing with him and I think he might have mentioned something about it.”  
She shrugged, “I haven’t seen him since middle school cause he moved.”  
“He’s still rich, and he’s as pompous as ever.”  
She snorted, “So he hasn’t changed?”  
“Nope.”  
Karkat walked over and slammed his bag into the chair next to him before putting his plate down, “Hi fuckers. Tavros had to go to the library to do some research for Animal Behavior, he won’t make it.”  
I nodded, “Okay, where’s Nepeta and Equius?”  
“Stuck in line.”  
I looked over at Terezi through my only good eye, she was more relaxed, despite everything that was just discussed.


	5. Terezi: Run

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay the chapters in the beginning are a lot shorter than I thought, but they get longer I swear.

Chapter 5: Terezi: Run

 

“There you are sis, I’ve been all up and getting my look on for you.”  
I froze, and all the blood in my body ran cold. No, no, no!  
“What are you doing here you clown?” I spoke slowly and quietly.  
His hand came down on my shoulder, “We didn’t exactly leave off on good terms last time we spoke motherfucker, I was hoping we could get our reconciliation on.”  
I opened my mouth to speak, but couldn’t get any words out. Every cell in my body screamed me for run, but I couldn’t move. I was frozen in place with fear.  
“Well, what’s it gonna be Terezi? Am I going to have to follow through with the unpleasantries that I all up and informed you of last we spoke?”  
That was a shock to my system, I I thwacked him with my cane and ran toward my dorm, slamming into people left and right. Normally I could avoid people even without my cane, but I didn’t have time to avoid them.  
I slammed into the door of my building, knocking the wind out of me. I could hear him coming up behind me, so I hurriedly unlocked the door with my ID and ran up the stairs to my floor.  
I found myself pounding on Vriska’s door. It was 10 at night, she was going to be pissed.  
She yelled from inside, “What the fuck do you want it’s the middle of the night!”  
“It’s me! I’m kinda running for my fucking life let me in!”  
I stopped pounding when she unlocked the door and opened it, grabbing my by the wrist and pulling me in just as I heard Gamzee reach this floor, calling out my name.  
She slammed the door shut and locked it behind her before turning to me, “Care to explain who that was?”  
I gasped for air, “Gamzee!”  
I heard her nod, “Okay, need me to go kick his ass or something?”  
I shook my head, “He has juggling clubs with him at all times, you’re unarmed.”  
“I’m rolling my eyes Terezi, I have a switchblade.”  
I heard a pounding on the door and I jumped. Vriska walked over and dug through a desk drawer and pulled the blade out and flicked it open. She yelled through the door, “Get out of here Makara! I might just have to fuck you up!”  
“I just wanna get my talking on with Terezi motherfucker, I’m not going to hurt her,” he yelled back.  
“Yeah right you assmunching clown!” I yelled.  
I heard him kick the door, “Let me in!”  
“No!” we yelled in unison.  
I heard him pretty much growl and I heard him slam one of this juggling pins on the door.  
“I swear to god if you break my door I’m gonna stab you,” Vriska shouted.  
In response his pin came down on his again and cracked it, I had forgotten his strength.  
I sighed and walked toward the door. Vriska grabbed my wrist and hissed, “What are you doing?”  
“I’m not gonna let him break your shit and possibly hurt you too. I might as well accept my fate.”  
“Shut up Pyrope, I don’t know you well, but I know that you aren’t the type to just let someone walk all over you. I’m not gonna let you go out there to get beaten,” she practically growled.  
I sighed, “I thought I lost him when I got here, but I didn’t. I didn’t mean to drag you into this mess.”  
She shook her head, “Too late now.” We jumped when the door cracked again. I wrenched my wrist free and opened the door. I assumed Gamzee was poised to strike again, but he didn’t. A lazy, sadistic smile crossed his face, “That’s my girl, now come here.”  
He held his arms open for a hug, but I punched him in the chest instead.  
He staggered, yelling “Motherfucker!” before hitting the wall. The hallways here were really narrow. He recovered quickly and slammed his club into my shoulder, causing me to cry out along with Vriska.  
Most of the floor was gone at some event the college was holding, so no one came to either of our defense. No one but Vriska.  
She shoved me aside and stood in front of Gamzee, “Get out, now. Or I swear to God I’m going to stab you 64 fucking times. Leave my sister alone.”  
He tilted his head, “I’d like to see you try sis.”  
Vriska brought back her arm back to stab him, and I suddenly wished she was left handed because he slammed a pin on her right forearm with a crack and she cried out, dropping the knife and dropping to the floor.  
I screamed and swung my cane, hitting Gamzee on the side of the head. He grunted and took a step toward me.  
Then I heard her as she grabbed the knife and stabbed him in the leg with a cry of pain. He probably broke her arm.  
He screamed, and slammed the pin on her head, just as the RA from the next wing ran over.  
The RA, Kanaya, yelled, “Enough!” grabbed Gamzee’s wrist and kicked the knife out of Vriska’s hands, who promptly screamed in pain again.  
“Stop!” she yelled. She pulled her phone out with the hand that wasn’t holding Gamzee’s and started to dial for security when Gamzee punched her in the face and took off running despite the bleeding wound in his leg. I ran after him and slammed my cane in the back of his knees. It wasn’t a thick cane, but it was enough to trip him up and fall into the window, cracking his head against it. He slumped against the ledge and fell onto the floor, unconscious.  
I panted from exertion. I turned around and heard Vriska hit the floor.  
“Vriska!” I ran over and dropped by her as Kanaya spoke on the phone with security.  
She didn’t answer when I shook her or called her name. Soon security was in along with paramedics. I started to feel the pain in my left shoulder, which I couldn’t move. It was probably broken.  
Paramedics loaded the three of us into ambulances and took us to Skaia Memorial Hospital, almost ten minutes away.


	6. Terezi: Visit Vriska

Chapter 6: Terezi: Visit Vriska

I walked down the hallway, with my left arm in a sling, dragging my fingers against the wall to read the Braille that said which room was what. Vriska got out of surgery about four hours ago, but they said I could visit her.  
Gamzee had fractured her skull and broken her right arm, along with breaking my shoulder.  
Gamzee was handcuffed to a bed down the hall from me with a stab wound to the leg and a concussion. Which in my opinion wasn’t enough.  
I found her room, and walked in. I could hear her breathing, but it was slow. I found a chair by her bedside where I assumed that someone in her family had been, and sat down.  
I sat there for awhile, leaning against the railing along her bedside with my good arm. I was a little loopy from my pain medication as well as tired.  
I managed to fall asleep leaning against the railing, dreaming of what smelled like blood and fear, and it all came from Gamzee.  
I woke up later and Vriska still hadn’t woken up. A nurse told it had been almost seven hours since she had been awake last, which was in the hallway in our residence hall.  
Seven hours.  
I would have been lying if I said I wasn’t worried. I had the irrational fear that she wouldn’t wake up. I knew she would, she was too stubborn to die.  
I messed with glasses, my hair, and chewed on my lip nervously for the next hour.  
What figured was that she finally woke up after being out cold for 8 hours.  
I heard her moan in pain, and try to sit up, only to fall back against the bed.  
“Vriska?”  
“Pyrope? What are you doing here?”  
“My room is boring so I came here.”  
“I was just out fucking cold, how is that any more fun.”  
“Cause it’s not dead silent in here.”  
She sighed as a nurse came in, “Good to see you’re awake Miss Serket!”  
She groaned, “Enough with the fake cheeriness, how bad is my head cause it hurts like a bitch.”  
I could practically hear her voice drop with irritation, “Your attacker fractured your skull and almost completely broke your arm. Your prosthetic arm is fine, so no repairs are needed there. You also might need new prescription glasses because your vision may be a little more impaired, but you should be fine.”  
“Okaaaaaaaay, so where are my glasses anyway?”  
“On the table beside you.”  
I heard her reach over and grab them, putting them back on.  
I heard the nurse mention that Vriska’s family was here, and left to go get them. When she returned I heard two people walk in, both female.  
“Well hello Vriska, and you must be Terezi,” I heard an older voice speak and I suddenly felt a lot of tension in the air.  
I nodded, “Hello Mrs. Serket.”  
“Ms. if you could, my husband left years ago.”  
I nodded again. I younger, but still older the Vriska, voice spoke up next, “Hi, I’m Aranea!”  
“Hello.”  
I heard Vriska sigh and hit a button, presumably for more morphine.  
I heard Aranea walk by me, “You’re blind right? Let me see your eyes!”  
“Why?”  
“I want to see if I can fix them.”  
I would have stared at her if I could see, but I pulled my glasses off. I wasn’t sure if I wanted my vision back, I could live just fine without it.  
She looked at them for a bit, “I think I know just the procedure that would fix them!”  
Vriska sighed, “My sister is an eye surgeon. She wanted to fix my left eye but I told her I wasn’t letting her near my head with a scalpel.”  
Arenea’s head snapped to face her sister, “I wouldn’t hurt you intentionally and you know it.”  
“Really? Like you said you wouldn’t hurt my tarantulas? You dissected all of them!”  
“Enough, both of you!” Ms. Serket yelled.  
They fell silent immediately, and the silence was awkward.  
Aranea turned her head to me again, “So what do you say? Want me to fix your eyes?”  
“Let me think about it, I’ll get back to you.”  
She nodded, “Sounds like a plan, I should probably tell you the specifics of the operation also…”  
She went on and on and on about it for at least an hour, Vriska groaning every so often for her to shut up. Eventually she finished, and I wanted to gouge my ears out so I couldn’t hear anymore. Except that would highly prevent me from living correctly.  
Ms. Serket walked over by Vriska’s bedside, “Now for you, what the hell were you doing with a knife in your room.  
She flinched, “It was for self defense when I left the room at night.”  
“And you found it necessary to stab her attacker why?”  
“He was attacking my friend! What else was I going to do!” she yelled indignantly  
“Call for security like any sensible person!”  
I sat there awkwardly as they fought. My mom was supposed to be here soon, and she was going to give me the ninth degree about not telling her about Gamzee’s abusive behavior. She had been planning to move, and when I told her to go across town to get away from Gamzee, she agreed without pressing me on the issue. She knew we broke up, but not why.  
Their argument ended with Ms. Serket storming out of the room and Aranea following closely behind.  
Vriska was pissed, I knew that much. I turned my head to face her, and she released her grip on the sheet. She sighed, “I’m sorry about that, my mom’s a bitch.”  
I shrugged, “My mom’s gonna yell at me too when she gets here.”  
“When’s that?”  
“Any time now.”  
“Wanna head back to your room?”  
“Not really.”  
She laughed a little, “All there is in this room is drama and bullshit, why on earth would you wanna stay in here.”  
I bit my lip, I didn’t wanna say it out loud. If I said it out loud that means that I had accepted it as a real thing. It had crossed my mind, but I had immediately shut it down. I refused to think about it, because I refused to acknowledge it as a real feeling.  
I wasn’t going to let any feeling like this in again. I refused. I wasn’t going to put myself back into a situation where someone could take advantage of me again.  
Never again.


	7. Terezi: Have awkward family time

Chapter 7: Terezi: Have awkward family time

We sat there in an awkward silence for a few moments before the nurse came in to tell me that my family had arrived.  
I nodded and followed her back to my room. My mom and Latula were already there.  
Latula came up and gave me a one armed hug around my good shoulder, “Hey there rad girl, how ya doing?”  
I shrugged with my good shoulder, “I’m fine.”  
My mom stepped forward and hugged me, “I’m so glad you’re alright, but I’m disappointed you didn’t tell me about the violence sooner. Why didn’t you?”  
I shrugged, “He was threatening to kill me, what did you expect?”  
“I would have had the entire police force protecting you, you know this right?”  
“I know, but I didn’t want to risk it. I didn’t want to put anyone else in danger because of me. He even said once he’d come after you guys too…”  
“I have the police on speed dial, you know this Terezi.”  
I sighed, “He had me wound around his finger Mom, I didn’t know what to do. When we moved it was a blessing.”  
“So that’s why you wanted to move so badly?”  
“Yeah, that’s why.”  
She sighed heavily and hugged me again, “If I could be the prosecutor for this case, he would never see daylight again. But that would be conflict of interest, and I can’t.”  
I took my glasses off and rubbed my eyes furiously, the bits of glass still in my eye hurting. I was not going to cry over this.  
She rubbed my back, “It’s okay Terezi, you’re okay now.”  
Latula came up from behind me and hugged me, “You’re okay lil’ sis.”  
I have sobbed that hard in a long time.

~====<3====~

I was released later that day, but I didn’t leave quite yet. My family waited downstairs while I went to go see Vriska again.  
“Hey Pyrope, you’re back,” she spoke quietly.  
“Yeah,” I muttered.  
I walked over by her bedside and leaned against the railing.  
“What are you doing back here anyway? I heard you got released,” why was she so quiet? She’s never quiet.  
I shrugged and she sat up, “Considering Arenea’s offer at all?”  
“Considering yeah, not sure whether or not I actually want to see.”  
She nodded, “Yeah, I’m so used to only seeing through one I it’s just normal to me.”  
“Yeah.”  
Silence fell again, awkward again.  
I turned to leave but her hand grabbed mine, “Don’t go yet, I wanted to talk to you about something I just don’t know how to bring it up.”  
I turned back to her, not sure what to say. That feeling rose in my chest and I tried desperately to shove it back down.   
It wasn’t working.  
“That’s not like you Serket, normally you’re blunt about shit,” I tried to tease, but my voice broke at the end.  
“Heh, I guess you’re right,” she sighed. “Goddamnit, forget this.” She pulled my down and my face awkwardly smashed into hers, causing her to gasp in pain, before she quickly pulled her hand up to guide my mouth to hers.  
That feeling in my chest spread all over, and it was warm. Her hand held me in place, but I didn’t even try to pull away. Even if I was denying it to myself, I had wanted this. It was something I wanted, and I actually got it.   
She wasn’t demanding as her mouth worked against mine, which was something I did not expect. She was soft, and almost caring.   
Soon I was shaking and my eyes watered again. Her hand slid to my good shoulder and I buried my face in her robotic shoulder.   
“Shhhh… Shhhh…” she rubbed my back. “You’re okay.”  
“Everyone keeps telling me that…” I laughed softly. “Why are you being so… not you?”  
She scoffed, “Something about you, I don’t know what, makes me to want to not be a bitch to you.”  
I snorted, “That’s no fun, it’s fun to tease you when I know I’ll get a response.”  
She laughed, “Oh you’ll get a response all right.”  
I laughed, “Good, you wouldn’t be you without it.”  
She pulled my head up so she could look at me and kissed me again. It was a little more insistent, which was more like her. I welcomed it, as it fit her.   
Someone cleared her throat in the doorway and I jumped, causing Vriska to snicker.  
“If you’re all done here I think we should taking you back to campus Terezi,” Mom said, however I could hear her smiling.  
I gave Vriska a quick hug, telling her I’d see her soon, and headed back to campus with my mom and sister.  
Being back on campus was interesting. Tavros, Nepeta, and Equius were waiting when we got there.   
Nepeta ran over and gave me a gentle hug, “I’m so glad you and Vriskers are okay! When we heard what happened furrom Kanaya we were so worried!”  
I shrugged, “We’re okay. However if it wasn’t for her I’d probably be dead in an alley somewhere.”  
I heard her rapidly nod her head, “I’m glad you went to her room instead of yours!”  
Tavros wheeled over, “How’s your shoulder?”  
“It hurts, but it’ll be fully functional in a few months.”  
It was harder to hear him nod, but that’s because he had less hair I assumed.   
Equius walked up next, “I would hope Makara is facing charges because of all this?”  
I nodded, “Yeah. Several counts of domestic violence.”  
Nepeta gasped, “What!? You two were together?”  
“Before I transferred yes.”  
“I’m so sorry Purrezi! That’s terrible,” she sounded really upset.  
“It’s fine Nepeta, it’s all over now.”


	8. Vriska: Be released

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think I'm really bad at writing so I apologize for any OOC-ness.

Chapter 8: Vriska: Be released.

I’ve been here a week and I’m bored as hell.  
Terezi came in when she could, which was whenever Equius gave her a ride as he was the only one in our friend group who could drive besides me, and on the days she didn’t come she called me at least once. That killed some of the boredom.  
Right now I was on the phone with her.  
“I’m still considering Arenea’s offer by the way,” she was saying.  
“Yeah? I’d still be wary of her being anywhere near your face with a scalpel.”  
She laughed, “I know, but I actually wanna know what my friends look like ya know? What campus looks like, what anything outside of my home town looks like.”  
“Yeah,” I never really thought about what it would be like to not see at all, to not know what anything looked like.  
“Yeah, what do you look like anyway?”  
“Eh, long wavy black hair, one blue eye, one lighter blue eye. Like what your eyes look like blue. Well, I guess you don’t know what your eyes look like but yeah. I’m about five foot eight, and I have a robotic arm. I’m kinda pale skinned, like almost as pale as you,” I described.  
“Sounds beautiful,” I could hear her smiling.  
I scoffed, “Of course, what else did you expect?”  
She snorted, “Self centered as always.”  
We were quiet for a moment before she spoke up again, “I think I’m gonna take her up on her offer.”  
“If that’s what you want then I can’t stop you, however I’d still be wary of her.”  
She laughed, “I’ll be careful.”  
“You can’t be careful when you’re unconscious!”  
She laughed again, “Why so worried Serket?”  
“Shut up! I’m just warning you that my sister is a fucking bitch.”  
She cackled, “It’ll be fine Vriska, I’ll be fine.”  
We talked for awhile longer before a doctor came in and I had to go.  
He inspected the wound on my head and deemed that I could go home that day. Thank god. My hair was also growing back in the place where they had to shave my head to do surgery, another small miracle.  
My mom picked me up and drove me back to campus, where I promptly said goodbye and walked up into my residence hall.  
Terezi was leaning against the door to my room, which had been replaced, grinning her usual maniacal grin.  
“Hey there Serket.”  
“Hey yourself Pyrope.”  
There was an awkward hug, seeing as she was still in a sling, and I kissed the side of her head. She laughed.  
“You get that room transfer in?” I asked.  
“Yeah, we’ve got a week to move our stuff upstairs.”  
“Sweeeeeeeet.”

~====<3====~  
A few months passed, and I had my cast removed and Terezi no longer had to wear that damned sling. She had appointment after appointment with Aranea for her eyes, and her surgery date was quickly approaching. She was nervous, but she never really showed it. I could still tell though.  
I looked up at the clock, it was almost two in the morning, but it was a Friday night. However, finals for Fall semester were quickly approaching. We were studying right now, but I was bored as fuck with studying.  
I rolled over and wrapped my arms around Terezi, who was listening to her audio recordings of lectures. She turned her head back and grinned at me, “What? Bored already?”  
“It’s two in the morning Pyrope and I’ve been studying for the last four hours. Of course I’m bored.”  
She laughed, paused her audio recording, and pulled her headphones out. She rolled over to face me, grinning sadistically, “If you’re bored, then what do you want to do?”  
I kissed her quickly and before I could open my mouth to say something she had her mouth locked to mine.  
Kissing her was my favorite part of the day hands down.  
She was damn good at it too, she was skilled and knew exactly what to do. I was no slouch either, as made evident by the little sounds she made when I nipped her lip or traced the roof of her mouth with my tongue.  
Not to say I was quiet either.  
She bit my lip roughly and forced her tongue in my mouth, and my god I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t hot.  
I retaliated just as roughly, rolled her onto her back, and pulled myself on top of her. I trailed kisses to her jaw and to her neck. She tilted her head back and sighed.  
“Enjoying yourself?” she breathed.  
“I don’t know, are you?”  
She laughed breathily, “Did you know a blind person’s sense of touch is more sensitive than someone who can see?”  
“Yeah, I did know that.”  
“Well it’s true.”  
“I knew that.”  
“Shut up.”  
“Make me,” real mature Serket, real mature.  
She moved her head and nipped my neck, successfully shutting me up.  
It was one of the few days where neither of us were dealing with residual pain from our respective healed injuries. They were healed yes, but they still hurt to use sometimes, her shoulder especially since it was a joint.  
Physical therapy for this shit was a pain in the ass.  
She nipped again and my train of thought was, poof, gone. Gone like someone walking into a spider web, destroying it.  
She hit a particular spot on my neck and my back arched as I took the sharpest breath I’ve taken in a long time.  
She slid her hand down to my hip and slid her fingers under the fabric. Her fingers were cold, but it set fire beneath my skin.  
Not that her biting my neck wasn’t helping that.  
Her hands slid upward, dragging my shirt with it. Her hand rested on my chest, and I swear if I was a cat I would have been purring.  
It was getting difficult to form coherent thoughts, until one occurred to me that almost killed the mood for me.  
Had I manipulated people in relationships before? Yes. Was I proud of it? No. Did said manipulation get me laid before? Yes.  
However, I didn’t want to do that to Terezi. I didn’t want her to think she had to do this, like I’m sure Gamzee had.  
I traced a circle on her back and let her do as she pleased for a little while longer as I thought.  
Normally, I didn’t care who I walked over to get what I wanted. What made her different? Something about her just made me want to be a good person to her. I knew I was a bitch, that news did not escape my notice. I guess that doesn’t excuse me from having emotions, as much as I wish it did. I didn’t know why I felt like this, but there was one thing I did know.  
I didn’t want to use her like I used everyone else.


	9. Vriska: Be... kind

Chapter 9: Vriska: Be… kind.

She squeezed her hand and my back arched again, sounds of bliss pouring from my mouth.  
Wait Serket, that wasn’t supposed to be what came out of your mouth right now.  
“Terezi…” I tried to say.  
“Hm?” she bit my neck again.  
I lost my train of thought again, damnit what was I trying to say?  
I remembered again, “Terezi… wait…”  
She turned her head up to make it look like she was looking at me, “Hm?”  
I held her tightly, “You know you don’t have to do this if you don’t want to.”  
She shrugged and before she could talk I continued, “I’m not Makara. I’m not going to use you either. I don’t wanna use you like I’ve used everyone else…”  
She blinked a few times before smiling a little, “You’re growing soft on me Serket.”  
“Shut up I’m trying to be nice here.”  
She laughed, “I know, and I appreciate it.” She rolled off me and curled up next to me, closing her eyes.  
I rolled onto my side and pulled her into my arms. I buried my face in her hair, traced circles on her back, and soon her breathing evened out and she was asleep.  
Shortly thereafter, I was asleep too.  
The next morning, I woke up to her tracing lines on my back and humming softly to herself.  
I murmured a good morning and curled up tighter around the smaller woman. She hummed and shortly I was asleep again.  
After I woke up, the day went like any other Saturday would. We studied and did any other everyday things.  
Weeks passed, and then came the day of reckoning.  
Terezi’s eye surgery.

~====<3====~

She was nervous, and she was trying to hide it, but it wasn’t getting past me at all.  
I sat with her in the prep room, where the anesthetics were making her loopy. I rubbed my thumb over her knuckles from the chair next to her bed. Latula was snickering at some of the things she was saying and her mom was reclined back in a chair, smiling a small smile that didn’t reach her eyes.  
She was nervous too.  
I would be lying if I said I wasn’t nervous, this was Aranea doing the surgery. My sister. My sadistic and manipulative sister. She put me to shame on the manipulative scale.  
Terezi started looking really tired, yawning every couple of minutes.  
“Bit tired there Pyrope?”  
“Shut…. up… Serket…” she mumbled.  
I smiled mischieviously at her as she flipped me off.  
“But seriously… Vriska… I… I gotta tell you something…” she drawled  
My heart clenched, “Yeah Terezi?”  
“Been too nervous to tell you for a month now… but since I’m all loopy and completely fearless… wanted to tell you that I love you Serket,” she shut her eyes.  
I blinked several times, she what?  
She opened her eyes again, and gave me a dopey smile. I pulled her into a hug, and to my shock a sob escaped me.  
I knew what I was feeling toward her, but I didn’t want to put a name on it. Putting a name on it made it real, and that scared me.  
But hearing it from her first, it reassured me. It made me forget my fears for a few moments.  
“I love you too Pyrope, so much,” no one had ever said that to me before, not even my own mother.  
“Why are you crying… Vriska…”  
“No one has even said that to me before… no one.”  
She pulled her arms up and weakly wrapped them around me, “Well I’ll be sure to tell you it often so… you remember… that you are loved… Now if you’ll excuse me…. I’m going to take a little nap…”  
I laughed and sat up, drying my eyes with my right arm, “You do that Pyrope, I’ll see you when you wake up.”  
She smiled and her eyes shut, and she was out cold.

~====<3====~

The surgery took two long hours.  
I sat in the waiting room with Terezi’s family, reading a book about pirates in the Indian Ocean during the colonial times. It was a fiction book, but it was still good.  
Latula was listening to music and her mom was reading a law book until Aranea came out of the Operation Room and pulled her mask off her face, “All done you guys, she should be able to see once her eyes heal!”  
I smiled widely, she’ll be able to see. She’ll be able to see!  
She woke up a few hours later, her eyes bandaged up.  
“My eyes hurt Serket,” she complained to me.  
I snorted, “I think that’s to be expected Pyrope.”  
She laughed, “Really? I had no idea!”  
We laughed. I was excited for her to see again. Aranea said she would be able to take the bandages off in a week, and then she had to wear a special eye cover thing for a month and then she’ll be able to see again.  
She came back to the dorm two days later. A week later, we took the bandages off. At her appointment with Aranea when we got her eye covers, she screwed her eyes shut as soon as the bandages were off and she tried opening her eyes with a few curses and covering her eyes with her hands.  
“What? What’s wrong?” Aranea asked.  
“Too… bright…” she said in a pained voice.  
Aranea looked pleased, “That means your sight is returning, and that is why you’re going to be wearing these eye covers. So the light doesn’t hurt you as your eyes heal. What did you see when you had your eyes open?”  
“It was a blurry mash of color,” her voice still sounded like she was in pain.  
“That’s good! You’ll probably need glasses, but you’ll be able to see again.”  
I slid my fingers between hers and she smiled, “That’s great, thanks Aranea.”  
She nodded, “Not a problem Pyrope, now if only you could get my sister to agree to let me fix her eye.”  
“Hell no Aranea, I’m not letting you near my head with a scalpel.”  
She snorted, “It turned out fine for your girlfriend didn’t it?”  
I sighed, “Yeah, but you don’t hold grudges on her.”  
She smiled evilly, “You have a point.”


	10. Terezi: See

Chapter 10: Terezi: See

Today was the day I could take my eye cover off, and keep it off.  
I felt Vriska sitting next to me on the couch in Aranea’s office, with her head resting on my shoulder despite her being taller.  
“You ready Terezi? It’s dim in here so you should be okay pain wise,” Aranea spoke from somewhere in front of me.  
“Yeah, let’s do this!” I smiled widely.   
My eyes no longer hurt on their own, but I knew once I got to open them they were going to hurt like hell.  
“Go ahead and remove them.”  
I undid the strap that held them on my head and removed it, keeping my eyes closed. I slowly opened them.  
My eyes burned from the even dim light, but give me a break I hadn’t seen the light of day in 12 years.  
I screwed my eyes shut and turned my head to face Vriska and slowly tried to open them again.  
I managed to get them open a bit wider, and I managed to make out through the darkness and the blurriness a little of what Vriska looked like.  
She had dark hair, and fair skin. I noticed she had a dark outline of glasses along with one lense looking like it was from a pair of sunglasses.  
I smiled widely, I could see!  
“Whatcha looking at Pyrope?” I could see the smirk on her face.  
“You Serket!” I opened my eyes the rest of the way, wincing slightly from the brightness of the dim room.   
Her smirk turned into a smile. I pulled her into a hug and buried my face in her shoulder, “I can see!”  
Mom walked over as I let go of Vriska and I saw my mom for the first time since I went blind. She pulled me into a hug, her medium length black hair brushing my face. Her skin was pale, but darker than Vriska’s, and her tell tale red glasses stood out on her face.   
She pulled away, smiling widely. Latula walked over next, and jegus she got tall. I stood up, only to get dizzy and sit back down, and I took a look at her through the dim of the room and my blurry vision. She had long black hair, red glasses that was practically a family trait that, unlike mine and Mom’s, was square instead of oval with points on one side.   
“Hey girl you can see me!” she cheered and hugged me tightly, I laughed, “Yeah Tula, I can see you.”  
Aranea did a standard eye exam and determined the strength of glasses that I would need, and said that if we stuck around for the next hour she could get them done and give them to me.  
So we sat in the dim room with her assistant who slowly turned up the brightness in the room with a dial switch.  
After about an hour Aranea came back in with a glasses case. She handed it to me, smiling, “Here you are! You’re glasses look just like your old ones, and they’re transitions too so the sun won’t hurt your eyes as much.  
Yeah, the flashlight she shone into my eyes to test that hurt like hell.  
The room was at full brightness now, and my eyes had adjusted to the light. I put my glasses on and my eyes widened.  
Everything came into focus, and naturally the first thing I was looking at with my glasses were my shoes.   
They went from blurry red shoes into detailed red tennis shoes. I looked up, and saw everyone in detail.   
Naturally, like any corny story, my jaw nearly dropped when I saw Vriska, who was smiling, “Like what you see Pyrope?”  
“Self centered as always Serket!”  
“You know it!”  
I cackled, “I can see guys! Now there’s nothing you guys can’t get past me!”  
Vriska laughed, “I’ll still get stuff past you there’s no escaping that one Pyrope.”  
I stuck my tongue out at her. Real mature Pyrope, real mature.  
She laughed again and Mom walked over, “Do you want to try standing again?”  
I nodded and stood up, being only dizzy for a short time. I managed to walk, over and give my mom a hug. I was awfully huggy today…  
Aranea cleared me to leave, handing me a pair of sunglasses to wear to protect my eyes from the sun.  
It was bright as fuck outside.  
I squinted my eyes as I walked out into the front room, which had large windows in the front and just about shut them again when we walked outside.  
It was warm seeing as it was late March, and fuck it was bright.  
I saw my mom’s car, naturally it was red, and it was a nice car too. That was to be expected with how much she made anyway.  
We drove back to campus with me staring out the windows and watching everything. Vriska laughed whenever she looked over and saw me staring out the window like a dog.  
I could see!  
Mom and Latula dropped Vriska and I off at campus after we went and got food from a local restaurant. It was well decorated, and when I mentioned this to Vriska she had scoffed and said, “Not really Terezi.”  
Says the one who can see out of one eye, and has always been able to see at least a little bit.  
I looked up at the residence hall. It was mostly windows, which were all tinted blue, along with a silver metal frame.  
“Pyrope, stop staring at the dorms and come on,” Vriska called from several feet ahead of me.  
I laughed maniacally, “Impatient are we Serket?”  
“Yes now come on already.”  
I laughed again and followed her inside.   
Our room had white walls and a huge window. My comforter was teal with dragons all over it, and Vriska’s were cerulean with a huge spider on her comforter. Surprisingly, she had made her bed and mine.  
I remember getting the comforter for my birthday back in September, my sister got it for me and described to me all the dragons on it to me.  
I walked over and threw myself on my bed, knocking my glasses crooked for a moment before I could fix them.   
Vriska snorted, “Having fun?”  
“Yes I am, got a problem with that?”  
She shrugged and fell onto the bed next to me, successfully trapping me from getting up because the desk was at the base of my bed, which was against the wall.   
“Oh no, you have trapped me from getting off the bed, what ever will I do,” I deadpanned.  
She scoffed, “Lay here with me.”  
I laughed, “Okay.”  
She rolled onto her side and hugged me, so I rolled onto my side and did the same to her, burying my face in the taller woman’s neck despite the fact that I could probably watch her face all day.  
She had the most interesting facial expressions, on top of being as beautiful as she described. Her hair was wavy and black, the eye I could see was a beautiful blue, and she had really full lips. Which I knew already, but it was nice to actually see them.  
I was hit was a sudden wave of curiosity as to what her other eye looked like. She said it was a very pale blue, but I still wanted to see it.  
I looked up at her, so she looked down at me. I reached up and tried to pull her glasses off her face, but she grabbed my wrist before I could get there, “What are you doing?”  
“I want to see your other eye!”  
“Hell no, there are better things to look at then my blind eye.”  
“But I wanna see it!”  
She scowled, “Why?”  
“Cause I’m curious.”  
“Not a good enough reason, sorry try again.”  
I frowned at her, “You said they looked like mine, I haven’t seen mine yet.”  
“Go look in a mirror then.”  
“I still wanna see yours.”  
“No way Pyrope.”  
“Why not Serket?”  
She scowled again but said nothing.  
I smirked, “Are you self conscious about it?”  
She frowned, “No!”  
“I think you are Serket.”  
“Shut up Pyrope.”  
I grinned sadistically, “I don’t just think you are, I know you are!”  
She scowled, “Okay fine, I’ll let you see my damned eye.”  
“Yay!” I grinned.  
She sighed and pulled her glasses off with her eyes closed. Her left eye had a spiderweb of scars that literally looked a bit like a spiderweb. She opened her eyes to reveal a pale blue eye with a bunch of tiny scars in her eyes. Her pupil was clouded, and I noticed tiny, jagged, dark lines in the clouds.  
She shut her eyes again and when she did I kissed the spot next to her blind eye, “Time for me to be a sap Serket.”  
“Oh God get it over with,” she turned her head to stare at the ceiling.  
“Even if your eye is messed up you’re still beautiful. I’m sure mine look just as scarred up,” I spoke quietly, nuzzling my head against the side of hers.  
“You’re a sap Terezi.”  
“You love it anyway.”  
“You’re right.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you guys are enjoying the fic! I know I loved writing it! I've hit a bit of a block with the second story in the series and I started writing an original story so after I'm done posting this story the next one might be awhile, sorry guys!


	11. Terezi: Testify

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A lot of this comes from my own experiences, only tweaked a little cause I never actually had to testify in court. And it was a completely different situation. But I'm not going to go into the specifics. Hope you guys enjoy!

Chapter 11: Terezi: Testify

 

Vriska and I walked into the mail room, shoving each other and laughing our heads off over some joke I no longer remember.  
She stuck her tongue out at me and went over to her mailbox, saying something about hoping the Nic Cage movie had come in that she had ordered a week ago.  
I opened mine and pulled an envelope out. It was a subpoena. To testify against Gamzee Makara.  
The police had already interviewed me and Vriska, my interview taking almost two hours, about a month ago. They had been investigating this entire fiasco for the last several months.  
Gamzee had evidently been in the Skaia Memorial Hospital Mental Health Unit for the last several months. Eridan, an ex of Vriska’s, had been in there for an internship. Breaking confidentiality could get him arrested, but he trusted us enough not to say anything about it.  
I dropped the paper and Vriska’s laughter died in her throat as she opened her subpoena. I stared at the paper as I laid on the floor, and I heard Vriska walk over, “You okay?”  
“Not particularly.”  
“So we got court out in Prospit in a week?”  
“Yup.”

~====<3====~

My mom was a prosecutor, I knew what happened in court. They knew I was the daughter of the notorious Neophyte Redglare and was a pre-law student. They knew that Vriska was a Criminal Justice major, intending to go into the Navy after college.  
I pulled on a pair teal leggings with a red skirt type that sat on my waist but draped down the middle in the front and back instead of all the way around, a teal long sleeved shirt, and a red vest and arched to so the teal formed my zodiac sign, Libra. The scales.  
I turned to Vriska, she pulled on a black dress/jacket with cerulean designs all over it. Where the design split from her waist revealed a cerulean spiderweb design. Her zodiac sign, Scorpio, sat on the left side of her collarbones. She wore a black long sleeved shirt under it and black leggings. She slid on a pair of red boots, similar to the ones I was currently wearing.  
We looked like we were ready to do battle, and in a sense we were.  
I finally turned and looked in the mirror for the first time since I went blind.  
My hair was long, but not as long as Vriska’s. It curled outward at the ends, sticking up at one particular spot. I tried to flatten it but it wouldn’t stay down.  
I moved my glasses down and moved closer to the mirror. My eyes were a pale blue with a spiderweb of red all over the whites of my eyes. There were a few stitches still left in my eye from my surgery, so I looked almost insane if you just looked at my eyes.  
I looked a lot older than I had seen myself last, however it had been 12 years since then.  
“Admiring yourself there Pyrope?” Vriska joked.  
“You know it Serket,” I laughed quietly, a difference from my normal loud laugh.  
She walked over and wrapped her arms around my waist and rested her head on my shoulder, “You’ll be fine, the only thing you have to worry about is me not murdering the fucker in his seat at the defense table.”  
I laughed a little, “It’s not that, I just don’t want to remember any of this let alone recall it to a room full of strangers.”  
She nuzzled her head against the side of mine, “I know, and I’m sorry, but you’re strong, you just gotta show them that you are strong despite it all.”  
I snorted, “They’re expecting that, so I should give them what they want.”  
Vriska laughed, “That’s new, I was expecting you to throw them for a loop.”  
“I was being sarcastic Vriska, of course I’m going to throw them for a loop.”  
She laughed, “This’ll be good. Come on, your mom’s downstairs. Isn’t she impatient?”  
“When she wants to be. Let’s go.”

~====<3====~

“Do you, Terezi Pyrope, solemnly swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth so help you God?”  
“I swear.”  
The officer nodded and I took the stand. The District Attorney walked up to me first, “For the record, could you please identify the person in this room who was your abuser and attacker?”  
Everyone was staring at me and I suddenly wished I couldn’t see just so I didn’t have to see them staring at me.  
I raised my hand and pointed directly at Gamzee, who looked fantastic in prison blue.  
“Thank you. Now tell the court when exactly the first incident occurred?”  
I took a deep breath and panic flooded my chest as the memory crashed over me, “It was my freshman year of high school. We had just started dating a week prior, and we had been, well, kissing a bit and he was pushing for something more. I kept saying no, but he wouldn’t have any of it.”  
I stopped in take another deep breath and when that didn’t calm me down I took another. the memory just would not leave my head.  
“What happened from there Miss Pyrope?”  
Was there any air in here at all? My eyes darted from the jury to the defense attorney to Vriska to my mom to Gamzee and back again,” He, well, stripped me down without my consent and did away with me, again without my consent.”  
“For the record, what do you mean by ‘did away with me?’”  
“He..” I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t fucking breathe. “forcefully held me down by my throat, and forcefully…” I still couldn’t breathe, I was wheezing and it felt like there was no air going into my lungs. There was a reason I refused to think about this.  
The DA nodded for me to continue and I tried so hard to breathe, “He forcefully had sex with me without my consent.”  
When my eyes darted to my mom I saw nothing but pure fury on her face, and when I looked at Vriska she looked like she was plotting murder. Latula had pure shock on her face, which descended into fury as well. I never saw Latula mad unless someone was bullying her boyfriend, Mituna.  
I doubled over and gasped for air but it wasn’t coming into my lungs. I felt dizzy, and it felt like my heart was trying to rip itself out of my chest. Everyone was staring at me and I couldn’t breathe. I was having a full scale panic attack in front of everyone. I didn’t want to see right now, I didn’t want to see the pity written all over their faces. I didn’t want to see the fury on my family’s faces. I didn’t want to see the homicidal glare Vriska was giving Gamzee. I didn’t want to see the fury on Gamzee’s face.  
The judge called for a break, and I couldn’t move. Vriska and my mom were at my side instantly, more concern on their faces than I have ever seen. Vriska pulled me into her arms and rubbed my back, shooshing me. Mom looked worried, “Are you alright Terezi?”  
I shook my head and gasped out, “I can’t breathe.”  
Latula hurried up, “Deep breaths rad girl, even if you can’t feel it coming into your lungs just take deep breaths.”  
I wheezed and inhaled. After ten long minutes, I calmed down enough to slump into Vriska’s arms, shaking.  
The break ended too soon, and they had to go back to their seats. Vriska at the plaintiffs table, and Mom and Latula in the spectators section.  
I noticed that Gamzee hadn’t moved, besides the fact that he had been handcuffed to the table. He hadn’t moved at all.  
The DA walked back up. I stayed at the stand, not daring to move. I kept taking deep breaths, knowing that the worst was over for now. Or so I hoped.  
“What happened after he raped you Miss Pyrope?”  
I felt like I had been stabbed. I refused to think that word, but now it was echoing in my head, “He got off me and told me how much he loved me and how lucky I was that I would sleep with him. How I was such a good girl, and how I was the best he’s ever been with.”  
He nodded, “What day did all this occur?”  
“December 24th 2008,” I tried to sound strong while saying it, but the overwhelming panic and depression that washed over me wasn’t allowing it.  
“Did this ever occur again?”  
“Any time I was over there,” my airways clenched again. It was hard to breathe.  
“How long did this go on?”  
“9th grade through college freshman year.”  
“For the record, how many years is that?”  
“Five.”  
“Miss Pyrope, is there anything else the defendant did to you?”  
“He would hit me if I disagreed with him on something, or if I angered him at all, which wasn’t hard,” memories of him beating me down came to mind.  
“Were you ever hospitalized for any injuries?”  
“Yes, many times over the course of those five years.”  
“No further questions.”  
I slumped back in the chair, it wasn’t over yet.


	12. Vriska: Testify

Chapter 12: Vriska: Testify

I can’t remember the defense attorney’s questioning for Terezi, at all.  
I was churning with rage, he did what to her?  
I was gonna kill him, I was going to cut him into 8 centimeter by 8 centimeter blocks and feed him to my tarantulas back home.  
Provided Aranea hasn’t dissected them yet.  
Soon they were calling me to the witness stand.  
“Do you, Vriska Serket, solemnly swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth so help you God?”  
“I swear.”  
I took the stand and gave Gamzee my best death stare. If I could get my hands on him I’d murder him.  
“Could you please identify your attacker for the court?”  
I pointed at Gamzee with an angry look sent his way. Again.  
“Miss Serket, please explain to the court what happened on the night of September 8th 2013,” the DA instructed.  
“I was trying to sleep, minding my own business, when I heard someone pounding on my door. I wasn’t having much luck sleeping anyway, but it was aggravating. I yelled what did they want and Terezi yelled back that she was running for her life. I opened the door and pulled her in, demanding an explanation to who was chasing her. She explained that it was her ex, Gamzee Makara,” I spat his name. “I offered to defend her, and she told me that he always carries juggling pins. I, uh, explained that I had a switchblade. Gamzee yelled through the door that he just wanted to talk to her and wasn’t going to hurt her. Terezi yelled ‘yeah right.’ He yelled back for us to let him in. We yelled no and he started trying to break down the door. I yelled that I was going to stab him if he broke my door. Terezi, after a small argument with me, opened the door and punched him. He then slammed his pin down on her shoulder, breaking it. I ran out, held my knife up and yelled at him. He then broke my arm. Terezi hit him with her cane, and I stabbed in in the leg. He slammed his pin on my head and I got really dizzy, and when Kanaya Maryam showed up he ran and Terezi went after him. Then I don’t remember anything and I passed out.”  
The DA nodded, “Would you say that you attacked him in self defense of you and Miss Pyrope?”  
“Yes.”  
“Did you think you’re life was in danger?”  
“I thought Terezi’s life was more in danger than mine, but yes.”  
“No further questions.”  
I sighed, this was boring and aggravating, was it over yet?  
The defense attorney rose and walked over. The little I remembered from him pretty much drilling Terezi, he wasn’t that good.  
Gamzee was screwed, and that was a good thing.  
“Miss Serket, why did you have a switchblade in your room?”  
“In case I was out walking at night and someone jumped me.”  
“Why did you feel it was necessary to use the knife to stab my client?”  
“Because he was trying to kill my friend.”  
“Did he not say that he just wanted to talk to her?”  
I narrowed my eyes, “Well, yes, but he was obviously lying because he tried to break down my door.”  
“Do you have any evidence to support that he was lying in the first place?”  
“Just what Terezi was saying.”  
“Do you think it was possible that my client only became angry due to your refusal to let him in?”  
“It’s possible, but no sane person would have tried to break down the door with a juggling pin.”  
“Did my client seem completely in his right mind when the incident occurred?”  
I vaguely remember this argument when he was questioning Terezi. I swear he was aiming for an insanity verdict.  
“I don’t think anyone in their right mind would try to kill someone.”  
He paused for a moment, “Is it true that you were in the accident that ended in the death of Aradia Megido?”  
Shit.  
“Objection! Irrelevant!” the District Attorney said in my defense.  
“Overruled. Continue,” the judge spoke.  
I stayed silent for a moment before speaking, “Yes.”  
“It was deemed that you were not responsible for the accident?”  
“Yes.”  
“According to this record, it was deemed you were speeding at the time of the accident. Do you agree this was reckless and dangerous?”  
I hesitated, “Yes.”  
“Then why did you do it?”  
I sighed, “I was running late and the roads were empty. I wasn’t paying much attention to my peripherals and I didn’t see her until it was too late. I wasn’t wearing a seatbelt and went through the window.”  
“Would you agree that not wearing your seatbelt was also reckless and dangerous?”  
“...Yes.”  
“Would you agree that stabbing my client was reckless and dangerous?”  
I sighed, “Yes.”  
He turned to face the jury, “People of the jury, I ask you to consider Miss Serket’s character and decision making skills before taking her testimony into account. No further questions, thank you.”  
I left the stand and sat next to Terezi at the plaintiffs table, fuming. How dare he.  
How dare he.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I need to watch more courtroom shows.


	13. Terezi: Go back to the dorm

Chapter 13: Terezi: Go back to the dorm

Court was grueling, and it took several hours. Gamzee would testify at a later date. When it was finally adjourned, Mom took us back home to get food, but we hardly ate anything. Latula hugged me and left to go to her boyfriend’s house and promised to tell Sollux I said hi.  
She also mentioned she’d keep the part about Aradia’s death to herself.  
I fell asleep with my head on Vriska’s lap as she tried to watch TV. She was still furious. I woke up a few hours later with her shaking me awake, “Hey, we gotta go back to the room.”  
I nodded and sat up, sighing.   
None of us spoke much on the ride back to Skaia, and this time Vriska fell asleep with her head on my shoulder.   
When we got back, Mom said her goodbyes, promising that she’d be back to pick us up that weekend so we could all go do something fun, and left.  
We went back up to our room and as soon as Vriska shut the door I pulled her into a hug, “I never want to do that again.”  
She rubbed my back, “After all this you won’t have to.”  
I nodded and swayed on my feet. I let go and sat on the side of my bed, “All their faces, I couldn’t stand to see all of them staring at me. It just made it worse.”  
She sat next to me and threw her arm around my shoulders, “Don’t look at them, if you have to go to the witness stand again, just stare at the floor.”  
I leaned into her, “I hope I don’t have to, I truly don’t.”  
“I know.”  
“You still mad?”  
“Furious. I’m going to fucking murder that clown.”  
“I meant about the defense attorney trying to prove you weren’t a reliable witness?”  
“Oh that? Of course I am. That was completely unrelated and irrelevant.”  
I nodded and stared off at nothing and we descended into silence. Vriska broke the silence first, “Are you okay?”  
“Not really.”  
She pulled me into a hug, “Come on Pyrope, cheer up. Think of it this way, at his sentencing I’m gonna spit on the fucker and maybe throw my knife at him.”  
I snorted, “I’m pretty sure that throwing your knife at him in a courtroom is not advised.”  
“Does it look like I give a shit?”  
I laughed and pulled her back so we were lying down.  
“Feeling any better?” she asked, burying her face in my neck.  
“A little bit.”  
“This is going to sound completely out of character but what’ll make you feel better?”  
“Who are you and what have you done with Vriska?”  
“Shut up I’m trying to be nice.”  
I laughed maniacally for a moment before lifting her head up so I could see her face, “I guess I just need you to be here. I need to feel safe, and you make me feel safe.”  
She smiled a little, “I won’t move then.”  
I rested my forehead against hers, “Thank you.”  
She smiled a little wider and I let my lips meet hers. They were a bit chapped from her biting them all day, but I didn’t care. I just needed safety, and she was just that.  
Until she was pissed anyway.  
I rested my hand on her face and pressed against her. She rested her hand on my neck and traced circles on it, soothing the unhealthy feelings that were swarming in my chest and throat.  
I ended up rolling her onto her back and pulling myself on top of her, lowering my head to kiss her neck. She held her arms around my neck and her breathing deepened.   
I was almost as close to her as I was going to get and I wanted her that much closer to me, I craved it, needed it.  
Her nails dug into my shoulders when I moved her jacked enough to nip where her neck met her shoulder. This jacket was seriously starting to piss me off.   
I sat up, straddling her, and started unbuttoning it. She let me take if off her and throw it onto my bed that was against the opposite wall.  
She still had her long sleeved black shirt on, and leggings, and I still had all my clothing on, but it felt like too much fabric. I needed her closer.  
I tossed the red vest I wore aside, leaning back down to kiss her again. She moved her lips to my neck and trailed kisses to my shoulder and bit the spot there.  
I gasped and tilted my head to give her more room and threaded my hand in her hair, using my forearms to hold myself up.  
I sighed contently as she moved onto my collarbone, sucking on the skin there.   
There was still too much fabric separating us.  
I never really felt the need to be this close to anyone, not Dave in middle school, definitely not Gamzee through high school. I never needed it this badly.  
I sat up when she let go for air and slid my hands under her shirt, bringing it with me, and she rested her head back on the bed.   
I slid her shirt over her head and threw it aside before leaning down to bit along her collarbones.  
Her hands suddenly pushed against my shoulders, bringing my upright. She gave me a concerned look, “Are you sure you’re okay with this?”  
“Who are you and what have you done with Vriska?”  
“Shut up! I’m serious here.”  
“If I wasn’t fine with it I wouldn’t be doing it Serket.”  
“I’m just asking, you know you don’t have to do this for me to keep loving you or anything.”  
I hugged her, “I know, I just need you close to me, as close as possible.”  
The small sound she made was perfect. I kissed her neck softly and slowly trailed kisses back down to her collarbone. She pulled at the base of my shirt and pulled it over my head and threw it aside. I unhooked my skirt thing and tossed it. Still too much fabric.  
Her skin was warm and her body bowed upward into me as I dragged my fingers down her side. I sat up, pulling her up with me, and unhooked her bra, throwing it somewhere I don’t remember. She did the same for me.  
We tumbled down, mashing our lips together rather ungracefully with need. I rolled off her onto my side and pulled at her remaining clothing, and off they went. She did the same to me.   
She pushed me onto my back and rolled on top of me, biting at my collarbones. She slid down and worked wonders with her tongue in the most sensitive of places.   
She never said a word of how scarred up down there it must have been. She just worked her tongue like nothing I had ever felt. I threaded my fingers in her hair and tugged at it slightly every so often.   
Sooner than I would have liked the fire in my abdomen reached its peak and I cried out, pulling on her hair with one hand and the comforter with the other.   
After it died down she slid back up and laid next to me, nuzzling her head against my neck.   
I laid there panting for awhile before realizing something.  
“Damnit, Vris, I never got you…”  
She laughed, “Don’t worry about it, hearing you cry out like that was plenty enough to get me. That and the hair pulling was pretty hot too.”  
I felt myself flush pretty bad, “If you say so.”  
She smiled, kissed my forehead, and whispered, “I love you.”  
“Love you too Vriska.”


	14. Terezi: Witness Gamzee's Testimony

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Physical examinations in cases like this are the worst things in the world and I wouldn't wish it on anyone.

Chapter 14: Terezi: Witness Gamzee’s testimony.

I wasn’t happy with this. I wasn’t happy with it at all.  
I sat at the plaintiffs table with Vriska, squeezing her hand, staring at Gamzee as he took the stand.  
“Gamzee Makara, where were you the night of December 24th 2008?”  
“With my girlfriend.”  
“For the record, who was that?”  
“Terezi Pyrope.”  
He nodded, “What were you two doing that night?”  
“Just all up and getting our touchin’ on if I remember right.”  
“Did Terezi give you explicit permission to let you touch her?”  
“Yeah.”  
“Did you have sex with her?”  
“Yeah.”  
“Did she give you explicit permission for that.”  
He started to look uncomfortable. Good, “Honestly I don’t remember bro.”  
“Are you saying you don’t remember if she gave her consent or not?”  
He looked away, “Yeah man I don’t remember.”  
“So do you think that there was a possibility that she didn’t?”  
He lifted his head to face the DA, “Yeah, but I’m pretty sure she did.”  
“No further questions.”  
Gamzee sighed as the defense attorney stood, “Mr. Makara, when you say that you can’t remember whether or not she gave consent, do you know why?”  
“Bro I black out sometimes, and then I don’t know what happens. I’ll be somewhere and blink, and suddenly I’m in some new place.”  
The attorney nodded, “Mr. Makara, do you have any recollection of what you were doing while you black out?”  
“No man, I get my forgettin’ on.”  
“According to your record, you have several arrests for shoplifting, breaking and entering, and so forth. Do you recall any of these offenses?”  
“Nah man, they happened during blackouts.”  
“Are these blackouts caused by any substance abuse?”  
“Not always man, most of the time I’m sober during my blackouts.”  
The defense attorney nodded, “No further questions.”  
Gamzee left the stand and I wondered for a moment on his sanity. Not that I thought he was sane anyway, but this seriously made me doubt his sanity.  
Then it dawned on me that that was the point.  
He was aiming for a insanity charge.  
Anger seized my chest, how dare he.

~====<3====~

Court was adjourned with the instruction that I was to undergo a physical examination to prove that I had indeed been raped.  
There’s that word again, echoing through my head. I know it happened, but my mind refused to wrap itself around it.  
So a week later, there I was. Sitting in the medical center waiting for it. Vriska sat with me, tracing circles on my back trying to calm me down. I would be lying if I said that I wasn’t freaking out. The only person I wanted to touch me anywhere near there was Vriska, not some doctor. I don’t care if they say they’re trained to deal with people in my… situation.  
They called me back, had me change into a hospital gown, and had me lay down on the table.  
That damn table.  
The images that came across my mind’s eye were dark, but full of feeling of being violated in ways that I hope to whatever deity exists that will never happen again. I could feel it happening over and over and over again as they did the examination. Before they were even halfway done I was swallowing sobs. By the end I was holding back screams.  
I sat up when they were done, shaking. She told me that there was enough evidence left to certainly convict him, or at least that was her opinion.  
I dressed myself and walked out and back into the waiting room, silently crying. Vriska, who had been pacing when I walked out, was in front of me almost instantly and pulling me into a hug.  
“It’s okay, it’s over now, it’s over now,” she soothed.  
I couldn’t talk and it felt like a damn broke and I sobbed into her shoulder, screaming.  
She held me and rubbed my back, muttering, “Let it out, let it out.”  
When the receptionist asked us to leave I managed to regain my composure for the most part. Vriska drove us back to campus, and when we got there I went to take a shower, feeling vial.  
I sat in the shower, letting the water pound on my back. I scrubbed at my legs and my neck and all over me trying to get the shame and the disgust off of me but it just wouldn’t go away. I couldn’t scrub the violation off my skin. I felt dirty and vile, and I couldn’t get the feeling off my skin.  
I sat in there till long after the water ran cold. I heard Vriska knock on the door, “Are you okay in there?”  
I didn’t say anything and just stared at the wall. She tried the door, but I had locked it. She pounded on the door, “Terezi?”  
“I can’t get it off my skin.”  
“Get what off your skin?”  
“The disgust, the filth, the shame.”  
“Let me in Terezi.”  
I said nothing again.  
I could hear her sigh through the door, and then I heard her pick the lock. I didn’t even think to wonder where she learned how to do that.  
She walked over and sat next to the shower stall, still giving me privacy via the shower curtain. We sat there in relative silence for awhile as I scrubbed at my arms, which were already red and hurt.  
“Terezi, why are you scrubbing your skin raw?” she finally said.  
“I can’t get it off.”  
“You can’t get a feeling off you with soap Pyrope.”  
I sighed and kept scrubbing, “I feel disgusting and vile and I can’t get the feeling to go away.”  
She sighed, “I can’t even imagine. I mean, my mom beat and neglected me as a kid, but she never…”  
I felt my heart break, “Why would she do such a thing?  
“Who knows, but that’s not nearly as bad as this Terezi. This is terrible.”  
I finally noticed the water was cold, and noticed that I was shaking from it. My teeth were chattering and I hadn’t noticed. It was terrible. She was right.  
I slowly stopped scrubbing my arms. I moved the curtain and peered through it.  
Vriska looked actually upset for the first time in I don’t even know how long. I reached over and threaded my fingers in her hair, and she leaned into my touch. She shut her eyes and when they opened they churned with fury, “I’m going to murder that clown. I’m going to fucking murder him.”  
I shrugged and she looked over at me, suddenly looking concerned, “Your lips are turning blue Terezi, come on let’s get you warmed up.”  
I climbed out of the shower stall and she wrapped me up in a towel, hugging me. She guided me out and wrapped me in her comforter. She pulled some clothes out of my drawer and set it next to me, sat on the other side, and hugged me, trying to warm me up.


	15. Chapter 15: Vriska: Attend Gamzee's Sentencing

Chapter 15: Vriska: Attend Gamzee’s sentencing

 

It was summer now, it’s been months since this whole thing started, and today, it was ending.  
We were allowed to sit and I held onto Terezi’s hand to calm her, she was panicking again.  
She’s been dealing with the after effects of all this for awhile, as if the trauma of it finally caught up to her. It was concerning because she’s been spending more and more time in the bathroom, sometimes not even in the shower. Just sitting in there doing God only knows what.  
Now I was staying with her at her mom’s house due not wanting to stay with my family. I finally confessed to Terezi my mom’s abuse; the beatings, the verbal assaults, the neglect, and she basically forced me to come stay with her, somehow dancing around the issue of why I couldn’t go home to her mom.  
She’s been very withdrawn and quiet, which isn’t like her. Latula has even been trying to cheer her up. This last weekend she brought over Mituna and his younger brother Sollux, a friend of Terezi’s, and he played Minecraft with us for awhile. She got into it well enough, but afterward she went back to being withdrawn.  
I ended up texting Karkat and asking him if he’s ever seen her like this. It turns out that she was his freshman year of high school after she started dating Gamzee, before he moved to Skaia.  
It dawned on me that this was Makara’s fault. It was the damage he did that was making her so upset that she barely spoke, why she spends an hour in the shower scrubbing her skin trying to make the feeling go away.  
I ran my fingers over her knuckles as the head of the jury or whatever rose to her feet.  
“Has the jury reached a verdict?” the judge asked.  
“We have your honor. We the jury find Gamzee Makara guilty of all charges by reason of insanity.”  
Terezi’s hand clenched around mine tighter than I’ve ever felt her do so. The judge sentenced him to time in a state mental hospital, three years, and then ten years behind bars. However, if he did well enough in the hospital, he might have the time in prison cut back.  
We had learned in a previous hearing that he had multiple personalities, and one happened to be very volatile. They were trying to reintegrate all of his, so he wouldn’t be a danger to society.  
Terezi’s mom took us home afterward and Terezi and I sat on her bed. She held her head in her hands, “I was hoping he would get a longer sentence.”  
“Me too, the fucker doesn’t deserve to see the light of day ever again.”  
She sighed and looked over at me, “You’re right there. I just wish he actually had to face the severity of what he did. Face a good amount of time for it.”  
I nodded, “I know, I know.”  
She suddenly screwed her eyes shut and whined, another flashback.  
“Can I hug you?” I asked, hesitating.  
She shook her head and held herself, clutching the fabric of her red and teal hoodie. She whined again, and rocked back and forth.  
She opened her eyes and they were filled with panic, most likely mirrors of mine.  
“Hey, it’s not happening now Terezi, it happened yes and that’s terrible, but it’s not happening now. You’re okay, you’re just sitting with me in your room. Okay?”  
She nodded slowly before scooting closer to me so she could bury her face my shoulder. She clung to me, and her breathing slowed. Soon, she was breathing normally.  
She didn’t move, “Thank you, I’m not sure what happened there.”  
“Anytime Pyrope, can’t have you losing your shit on me.”  
This has happened before, where she has these flashbacks that completely cripple her ability to function. She describes it like she’s being dragged into a black hole, obviously because she was blind at the time, where she’s being hurt and violated over and over again. She can feel it on her skin, hence why she spends so much time scrubbing at it.  
Her mom came in and said that she was going out with some friends, which probably included Karkat’s and Sollux’s dads and Nepeta and Kanaya’s moms. They had been friends in high school apparently and they all remained pretty close.  
I also discovered that Terezi’s mom and my mom had a bit of a rivalry.  
My mom was a historian, and Terezi’s mom was a prosecutor. Apparently when they were in college, the very one Terezi and I attend, Mom was apparently a part of a piracy ring. She was the only one caught. Terezi’s mom attended her hearings, partially because she was interning for the prosecutor at the time and partially because they had some kind of love hate friendship going on and she was pissed at my mom, and she wanted her to get the maximum sentence for her crimes. However, Mom’s defense attorney was very good, and she got off easy. 100 hours of community service and a month in jail.  
Terezi’s mom was furious, and after Mom got out of prison they fought about it, and they haven’t spoken since. However, my mom’s piracy ring that she was apart of went after Terezi’s mom and left her for dead. Terezi’s dad found her, and that’s how that happened.  
I had been completely surprised by this, Mom had never talked about it.  
Her mom left, and Latula was spending the night at Mituna’s (again). I pulled Terezi onto her back and curled up against her shoulder.  
Usually, any time we ended up alone we curled up on Terezi’s bed and slept. Terezi’s been having horrible nightmares lately along with the flashbacks, so her mom’s been allowing me to sleep next to her to try and help her sleep. It only helps a small amount, and she doesn’t get much sleep. So, when it’s quiet and we’re left alone, we sleep so she doesn’t pass out randomly.  
I dozed off and when I woke up, Terezi wasn’t there.  
I sat up, scratched my head, and wondered to the bathroom. The door was shut, so I assumed Terezi was in there.  
I knocked, “Hey Terezi, hurry up.”  
I heard her knock into something and curse several times in pain. “Give me a minute!” she called in a shaky voice.  
“You okay in there?”  
“Yeah.. fine.”  
“You don’t sound fine.”  
“Just recoiling from a nightmare, I’m fine.”  
After a few minutes I knocked again, “You sure you’re okay?”  
“I’m almost done, give me a minute.”  
“You said that five minutes ago.”  
She sighed and I heard her throw her hoodie back on. She never took that thing off, even when it was 90 something degrees out.  
Her mom said that was unusual for her, normally she’d be out in a tank top and shorts laying in the grass laughing with Latula and Mituna about whatever. It was concerning.  
She better feel special, she’s the only person I give a shit about.  
She opened the door and the first thing I noticed was how pale she was. I mean, she had pale skin to begin with but her skin looked ghostly. She’s been looking like this when she leaves the bathroom.  
I sighed, “You know, you’re the only person I care about, and right now you look like a ghost. What’s going on?”  
She shrugged, “Nightmares.”  
“Besides that, you don’t look like this after you wake up, unless you woke up screaming. I know something’s going on and you’re not telling me and to be honest that really hurts,” I spoke fast and without stopping to breathe. When she flinched I mentally banged my head against the wall. Why did I say that part?  
She stared at the floor and said nothing.  
I put my hands on her shoulders and tilted my head to see her face, “Hey, I’m sorry okay? It’s just that you’re literally the only person I care about and you’re the only person who cares about me and I want to know what’s wrong so I can fucking fix it because I can’t fix anything else in my fucking life so I just want to fix yours.”  
I sounded angry at the end, but if that’s what it would take for her to tell me what’s going on then so be it.  
She stared at the floor for a moment before looking up and staring at the ceiling. I noticed tears fall from her eyes. Pain seized my chest, what on Earth could be going on?  
I stood straight, looking her straight in the face, “Terezi, what is wrong?”  
I slid my hands from her shoulder and slid it down to her wrists, in which she winced.  
Realization hit me like a truck.  
She was cutting herself.  
Despair and anger seized my throat and twisted my face. I opened my mouth to speak, and then closed it. Her face went from a look of shame to a look of utter despair in less than a second.  
“What the hell?” I had to keep myself from shouting. “You’re so much stronger than that Terezi. I can’t believe this. You’ve gone so low as to hurt yourself, without a single thought of what that would do to your family? To me?”  
She didn’t say anything and I felt rage boil through my blood, “How dare you.”  
I dropped her wrists, walked downstairs, and out the front door.


	16. Terezi: Cry

Chapter 16: Terezi: Cry

 

I slammed the bathroom door shut behind me once I heard Vriska storm out of the house.  
How dare I? Good question.  
I threw my hoodie into the tub and slammed my back against the wall, slid down, and curled in a ball next to the sink. Why did she have to find out?  
I slammed my head against the wall, making me dizzy. Why did she have to find out? Now she was mad at me, and probably wanted nothing to do with me.  
She was wrong, I wasn’t stronger than that. I wasn’t. I was weak, just like Gamzee used to tell me.  
Stupid, stupid, stupid.  
I curled back into a ball and sobbed silently for what felt like hours. After I cried myself out I pulled my hoodie back on and walked back to my room. I crawled into bed, and tried to sleep, to no avail.  
She was right, I hadn’t thought about what it would do to my family, what it would do to her. I never thought they would find out.  
I never thought she would find out.  
I curled into a ball. I almost wish that Gamzee had killed me.

~====<3====~

Vriska came back later, after 4 hours, around 3, utterly trashed.  
She stumbled into the house and somehow up the stairs. I heard her stumble around before she fell into the door. I hadn’t moved from the bed.  
She somehow opened the door and nearly fell stumbling into the room. She hiccuped, and fell.  
I lifted my head and saw her struggle to stand. She tried to talk but it was just a slur of syllables that didn’t make sense.  
I sat up, “Vriska?”  
“I’m sowwee about eawier Terezi, I was just swo mad at myswelf…” she slurred.  
I sighed, “Vriska, you need to lay down. I don’t know how the hell you ended up with alcohol when you’re only 20, but you’re trashed and if my mom finds out you were drinking underage you’re fucked.”  
“I’ll bwe asweep before she gets home,” she climbed onto the bed and passed out next to me.  
I rolled her onto her side and propped her up with a pillow in case she threw up, curled up next to her, and fell asleep.  
The next morning I woke up to hearing Vriska moan in pain. I rolled over and found her curled in a ball holding her head.  
I didn’t say anything, but I rubbed the space between her shoulder blades. The clang of pans out from told me that Mom was home, and was going to be making breakfast.  
“My head…” she moaned, her voice strained.  
I remained silent and kept rubbing her back. She rolled back over and hugged me, pressing my head against her collarbones, “I know my composure isn’t that good right now, but I wanted to say I’m sorry for how I, ow, reacted yesterday.”  
I sighed, nuzzled my head against her throat, and whispered, “It’s fine Vriska, no harm done.”  
She sighed, “We both know that’s a lie. Out of what I remember, you were curled in a ball and didn’t move when I got back when normally you would have taken the opportunity to laugh at me for being so messed up.”  
I sighed, “I guess you’re right.”  
She moaned in pain again and held her head, “But in all seriousness, I’m sorry I reacted like that.”  
“It’s fine Vriska, you were right.”  
She sighed irritably, “I didn’t mean what I said okay? I was just angry.”  
“The truth often comes out when one is angry you know.”  
“Shut up! I’m trying to show that I feel bad okay?”  
I chuckled, “I know, I’m giving you shit for giving me shit.”  
“Not funny,” she smiled slightly, which told me that it is funny.  
“Come on, let’s get you some painkillers. Are you nauseous?”  
“No, my head just hurts.”  
“Okay, come on.”  
I helped her to her feet and into the bathroom, where I had her take some ibuprofen, and sent her back to bed.  
The morning went along as normal, until Vriska got up and pulled me back into my room.  
“What is it Vriska?” I asked cautiously.  
“You need to tell your mom.”  
My blood ran cold, “No Vriska that isn’t an option.”  
“You bet your ass it’s an option.”  
I shook my head, “She’ll kill me!”  
“No she won’t, she’s your mother.”  
“She’ll still kill me!”  
She shook her head, “Either you tell her or I tell her.”  
My heart sank, “Fine, I’ll tell her.”  
She hugged me, “Good. I know stuff like that can turn into a real problem if left untreated.”  
I sighed, she was right.  
We walked back out into the kitchen, where Latula was washing dishes. I tilted my head, “Where’s Mom Tula?”  
“At the store, why?”  
“Gotta talk to her about something. Actually, I think it’d be easier if I talked to you about it first.”  
She turned from the sink, still washing a plate, “Alright, what’s up girl?”  
I sighed, “I have a problem, and it’s becoming a really bad problem…”  
She frowned and set the dish in the sink, “What’s wrong? Do I need to kick someone’s ass for you?”  
I took a deep breath and pulled my left sleeve up, my arm looking nothing short of a hack job gone wrong. Deep cuts, shallow cuts, large scars, small scars, they were all over my arm. Vriska stiffened next to me and Latula dropped the sponge and covered her mouth for a moment before walking over and pulling me into a tighter hug than I’ve ever probably gotten from her, “No Terezi no, you can’t do that to yourself, it’s not rad at all.”  
I nodded and hugged her, “I know, and I need to tell Mom about it but I don’t know how.”  
She nodded, still hugging me, “I’ll help okay? You’re right you gotta tell Mom.”  
She let go and grabbed both of us by the wrist before pulling us into the living room, which was the next room over from the kitchen. I pulled my sleeve down and sat on the couch between my big sister and my girlfriend.  
Mom came home exactly 32 minutes later. I had my head rested on Vriska’s shoulder and a hand in both of theirs. She put the groceries away before turning to the living room and freezing, “What’s going on?”  
Her “Mom senses” were crazy good.  
I bit my lip, how on Earth was I going to tell her?  
Latula spook first, “Come here mom, Terezi has to tell you something.”  
Mom walked over and sat in the recliner, “Okay? I’ll ask again, what’s going on.”  
I took yet another deep breathe, “I’ll tell you like I told Latula I guess, I have a problem, and it’s turning into a big problem.”  
“What is it Terezi, you’re starting to freak me out.”  
She has no idea, and in a second she is going to have an idea.  
“I, uh, well, haveabitofaselfharmproblem,” I couldn’t breathe.  
She blinked. She was used to hearing people run their words together when they were nervous in court, but I don’t think she expected to hear it from me.  
“You, what? How… what?” she stared at me in disbelief.  
I squeezed Latula and Vriska’s hands, “Yeah Mom, Vriska found out and she wanted me to tell you.”  
She looked over at Vriska, “Thank you for having her tell me, this is something important that I needed to know.”  
She looked back over at me, “Is this because of those flashbacks you keep having?”  
I nodded slowly, “I can’t stand them, they hurt so much, it’s the only way I know to make them stop hurting.”  
My heart shattered in my throat when I realized that my mom, the notorious Neophyte Redglare, looked like she was going to cry.  
I let go of Latula and Vriska and rose to my feet. I took three steps forward and hugged my mom, who promptly burst into tears along with me.  
Latula got up and hugged us as well as I blubbered, “I’m sorry,” over and over again.


	17. Terezi: See psychiatrist

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I writer's blocked so hard on this chapter and it took forever for me to write so the beginning sucks but I had a sudden burst of inspiration at the end that sets the scene for the next part of the fic. Hope you guys enjoy!

Chapter 17: Terezi: See psychiatrist

I agreed to let myself go to a psychiatrist, so two weeks later I found myself sitting in a small room with a couch and a desk where Dr. Lalonde sat.  
She told me to call her Rose, so I guess I’ll call her that.  
After the initial round of questioning that comes with any first psychiatrist visit, or so I’ve heard anyway, she leaned forward on her desk and asked, “So why exactly are you here Terezi?”  
“I told you, I have flashbacks and a self harm problem.”  
“What is the root of all of that though?”  
“My abusive ex-boyfriend. I started cutting when the flashbacks from that got to the point where I couldn’t take it anymore.”  
She nodded, “So you turned to hurting yourself why?”  
“I just told you.”  
She shook her head, “I mean what was it that you thought hurting yourself would accomplish?”  
“It would make the pain go away.”  
“By inflicting more pain on yourself?”  
“The endorphin rush I got from it was what I was looking for Rose.”  
“I know, that is why most people self harm. What I want is to help you logically look at what you’re doing and try to get you to see why it doesn’t make sense.”  
I shook my head, “I know it doesn’t make sense, but I do it anyway.”  
At the end of the session, I left with a prescription for some medication called Prazosin, which was supposed to suppress the flashbacks and nightmares.  
Two weeks later, I fell asleep, curled up in Vriska’s arms, and slept through the night without a nightmare.  
That was the first time in months.  
Currently, I was sitting on the couch, owning Vriska at Call of Duty. Mom and Latula were late coming home. Mom usually picked up Tula from work, cause Tula’s car was messed up currently.  
At 9PM, Mom walked through the front door running her hand through her hair. She looked stressed, and Latula wasn’t with her.  
I tilted my head, “Where’s Latula?”  
“At the hospital, Mituna and Sollux were in a car wreck,” she spoke slowly, like she didn’t quite believe what happened.  
“What!?” I asked, shocked. “Are they okay!?”  
Mom shook her head, “He hit his head against the window and may have brain damage. Sollux got glass in his eyes, and he may be blind if they can’t get all the glass out. They’re trying a similar procedure as they did with your eyes, but they are afraid that the glass cut his retinas.”  
I nodded, “I can help him get used to getting around if that’s the case but oh my God that’s horrible do you know what happened?”  
Vriska was watching me carefully. I may have been doing better, but she was still afraid that I was going to snap at any moment. The concern was appreciated, but not needed. I was a week clean now, and I was fine.  
My new therapist was teaching me healthier ways to deal with things. One technique she taught me for flashbacks was grounding, and it was working fantastically. Especially since my family was overprotective and they knew when I was having them.  
A few hours later, around midnight, we got a call from Latula with an update. Sollux was indeed blind, his retinas had been cut by the glass, and Mituna had really bad brain damage, but would be able to return to daily life after some physically and psychological therapy.  
A few weeks later, around mid-August, I found myself in Sollux’s living room, teaching him to navigate. He was doing better than a week ago, but he was still bumping into things.  
“You gotta use your senses Sollux. I’ve told you this every day for the last week, you can do this,” I said from his couch.  
“Shut up Pyrope I know,” he practically growled.  
I laughed maniacally, “Then stop bumping into things!”  
He groaned, “I can’t see Pyrope!”  
“I couldn’t see for 12 years! You didn’t see me bumping into things!”  
“You had a lot of practice Terezi.”  
I scoffed, “I wasn’t bumping into things in my house after a week without the aid of my cane.”  
He growled something unintelligible and walked over to grab his cane. He was at least not walking around with his hands out like he was at first.  
After a month of these lessons, he was walking around just fine. Around his house anyway.  
I sat in my room, sketching in red pen, when Vriska walked in with the mail. She threw an envelope at me, it was from the state.  
It was only a review of how the case went, but it was upsetting all the same. I curled in a ball against the headboard.  
She sat next to me and hugged me, “It’s alright, it’s over now.”  
I nodded slowly and leaned into her, slowing my breathing like Rose had taught me how to do.  
She kissed my face, “You’re okay.”  
I nodded and kissed her face in return. We curled up on the bed for awhile, we were home alone because everyone was at work so we could actually do that.  
I fell asleep, and when I woke up Vriska wasn’t in the bed, but I could hear her yelling on the phone from downstairs.  
“You know what? Fuck you 64 times with a fucking axe you fucking bitch. You are not my mother, and you never will be. Fuck you!” I heard her yell, followed by a crack of her phone hitting either the floor or the wall.  
I got up and while I was walking downstairs I heard another crack followed by a cry of pain. I walked out into the living room, “Do I even want to know what happened?”  
She had her fist against the wall and was leaning against it, panting, “My mom is a fucking cunt, nothing new.”  
I walked over and pulled her back so I could examine her fist, which was bruised and bloody. I sighed, walked over to the bathroom, got a roll of gauze and rubbing alcohol, and walked back over to find Vriska rubbing her eyes.  
“Seriously though, what happened?” I asked as I started cleaning her fist up. She didn’t even flinch.  
She spoke through gritted teeth, “She was begging me to come home because everything is a fucking mess because I was the only one who kept things running. I did everything for my mom. I was buying groceries since I was 10 with my mom’s money just to keep food in the house! Aranea hasn’t lived there in years so it’s just my mom and she said if I didn’t come home she was going to find me and drag me home. She tried being nice and when I refused her bullshit she started yelling and threatening me.”  
“You know, if she’s threatening you then I could just report her to my mom and she’ll take care of it.”  
“No, it’s not worth the trouble,” she sighed.  
“I thought the same thing with Gamzee and obviously it wasn’t.”  
She shook her head, “Unless I went home and she beat me black and blue like she wants to, I’d have no evidence against her.”  
“I’m not letting you go back there unless you have anything left there.”  
She clenched her jaw again, “Actually, I have a box left in the back of my closet there that I need. It’s got my most prized possession in it.”  
I paled, “Why didn’t you take it when you left?”  
“There wasn’t time remember?”  
That’s right, we had been in a rush to get her stuff before her mom got home. We had to sneak her out, otherwise her mom would have never let her leave.  
I finished bandaging her knuckles and she shook it, determination crossing her face, “I’m going to get it. It’s my sword, I need it back before she finds it and destroys it, just like she’s done to every other thing I’ve ever loved.”  
“I’m coming with you you know.”  
“No Pyrope, I’m not putting you in harms way.”  
“Too bad I’m coming anyway.”  
She sighed, “Fine, but I’m giving you one of my knives. I want it back after we’re done.”  
“Is she that bad?”  
“Oh you have no idea.”


	18. Vriska: Retrieve sword

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I feel bad for my lack of updates so have another chapter!

Chapter 18: Vriska: Retrieve sword.

We left a note for Terezi’s mom and Latula letting them know where we were going, seeing as Terezi didn’t have a phone yet and mine was officially broken, and I drove us out to Skaia to my mom’s house.  
It wasn’t not nearly as nice as Terezi’s house was, which wasn’t surprising seeing as it was a particularly nasty part of town. It wasn’t run down or anything, it was still a nice house. The neighborhood however, the very one I grew up in, was crime ridden and disgusting.  
I won’t lie, in high school I had plenty of run ins with the law, but I was such a smooth talker I never was arrested for anything. I guess I got that from my mom.  
We pulled up into her driveway, and within seconds my mom was waiting on the front porch, her arms crossed over her chest.  
“Well look who came crawling back to me, just like I said she would,” she sneered.  
“Shut up mom, I’m just here to grab something and then I’ll be on my way,” I spat.  
“And what makes you think I’m going to let you leave?”  
Terezi slammed her car door shut and opened her mouth to speak, but I shook my head at her. I turned back to face my mom, “You can try to make me stay, but it’s not going to happen.”  
Terezi walked around by me and I grabbed her hand to rush past my mom and through the opened door. We ran down the stairs into the basement, where my room had been, and dodged boxes of stuff before I swung open the door to my room.  
It was the only finished room in the basement, complete with a closet and everything. My bed still sat in the middle of the room with my dresser sitting across the room from it. The cage where my last tarantula had lived was still sitting on top of it.  
I let go of Terezi and ran across the room to the closet and swung the doors open. My sword was mine again.  
...Except it wasn’t in there.  
Pure blind fury overtook my senses and I screamed, “Where the fuck is my sword?”  
I could practically feel Terezi flinch behind me, and I swung around and stormed out of the room and toward the stairs.  
I looked up to see my mom just behind the door to the basement, holding my cerulean and black sword.  
“Looking for this?” she sneered.  
“Give that back you fucking wench!” I yelled, balling my hands into fists.  
“I don’t think so Vriska. And you and your little girlfriend are going to be staying here with me whether you like it or not,” she smiled maliciously. “Let Redglare come, I’d like to see her try to fight for her daughter back. However, she will not take my daughter from me again.”  
With that, she slammed the basement door shut and I heard the lock click as I sprinted up the stairs. I threw my weight against the door and almost fell down the stairs.  
“You can’t keep us down here forever!” I screamed.  
Her voice was muffled by the door, “Try me.”  
I threw my weight against the door again, and unfortunately due to certain… issues I have developed, my weight was not enough to even bend the door let alone break it.  
This is not the time to think about that Serket, later.  
This time, when I threw myself against the door, the inertia carried me back too far and I fell down the stairs, colliding with Terezi and taking us both to the floor. My head cracked against the concrete floor while Terezi’s hit an empty cardboard box, softening the blow.  
My vision went black for a moment when my head hit the floor and when I came to Terezi had me in her arms and was looking frantic. She was trying to say something but I couldn’t hear it, my ears were ringing too loud.  
I tried to sit up but a wave of dizziness and nausea came over me like a wave, and I fell back into her arms.  
As the ringing in my ears died I looked back over to Terezi, “Why the fuck do you look like I just kicked the bucket?”  
She shook her head and her voice sounded far away, “You were out cold for at least two minutes Vriska! I couldn’t get you to wake up!”  
I blinked, “Really?”  
It was only then did I realize that my speech was slurred.  
She nodded vigorously, “You wouldn’t wake up!”  
Vaguely I recalled reading out of one of Aranea’s medical books that if someone is out cold for more than 30 seconds after a blow to the head, they need to see a doctor. Now.  
I let a string of curses leave my mouth, I probably had brain damage now. Or just a really bad concussion, which basically was brain damage.  
I was barely able to sit up, almost falling over again. I felt incredibly tired and wanted to sleep, but I knew better.  
This was going to suck.

~====<3====~

It took eight hours for Terezi’s mom to get here with half the police force at her disposal. We heard her wreck holy hell all the way from the basement.  
“Where have you taken my children?!” we heard her scream.  
“Last I checked Vriska was my child!” Mom yelled.  
“If you were an actual mother to her, then I would agree!”  
“What the hell would you know about how I treat my child??”  
“I know enough. Now where are they?”  
“You can have your daughter back, but I’m keeping mine.”  
“Like hell you are! I have half of the police force here ready to arrest you for kidnapping.”  
“It’s not kidnapping if they came here willingly.”  
“It’s kidnapping when you won’t let them leave.”  
I shakily stood up and started to climb the stairs. Terezi rose to her feet and grabbed my shoulder, “You are not throwing yourself at the door again.”  
“I’m not, I’m going to pound on the goddamn door.”  
She nodded, “Let me help.”  
I nodded and she helped me up the stairs. Our moms were still screaming at each other, and I heard a cop with a megaphone call for silence.  
That’s when we started pounding on the door and Terezi started screaming, “Help us! We’re trapped in the basement!”  
I heard my mom yell something unintelligible at Terezi’s mom and a second later we heard her collide with the door, speaking loudly, “Terezi? Vriska? Are you guys okay?”  
“Vriska has a concussion, a bad one, but I’m fine! Can you get us out of here?” Terezi yelled through the door, sounding panicked.  
“We’re gonna get you out darling okay? We’re gonna get bo-” she was cut off when as my mom let out a guttural scream. Terezi’s mom screamed as well, sounding furious.  
Next thing I know is the door is wrenched open and my mom has Terezi’s mom scrambling from the other side of the room. Mom grabbed my by the throat and pulled me out into the room and once she had a firm grip on me, held a knife to my throat.  
I’m not afraid of dying, it’s not like anyone besides Terezi, Latula, and their mom like me anyway, but I’d much rather not die at the hand of my mother’s. That would mean she won, and I hate losing.  
Terezi screamed as my mom yelled, “Nobody fucking move!”  
“Mindfang, let Vriska go,” Terezi’s mom said calmly.  
Mom spun me around to face her instead of Terezi’s panicking face, “And why should I do that Redglare?”  
“Because if you murder your daughter in cold blood, you’ll be facing life in prison, if not the death penalty. Trust me when I say that any prosecutor would make sure you face death.”  
I felt the knife’s bite against my throat just enough to make me gasp and make the room spin more than it already had been from the concussion, but it wasn’t enough to kill me. Just enough to split the skin.  
“Marquise Serket, put the weapon down!” an unseen officer yelled.  
“I’ll ask again, why should I do that? Why shouldn’t I kill this ungrateful little bitch that is my youngest daughter?” she sneered.  
I decided to be stupid just then, “Why don’t you kill me mother? Isn’t that what you’ve wanted to do all my fucking life? To drown me in a bathtub or beat me till I couldn’t breathe?”  
“Shut up you ungrateful wench!” she yelled, digging the knife a little deeper into my neck. God did it hurt.  
“I repeat, put the weapon down or we’ll have to open fire!” the officer repeated, his voice not even wavering.  
She spun me to face them, “You can’t shoot me without shooting here.”  
She was right, I was just a little shorter than my mother, maybe 3 inches shorter. They couldn’t hit her without hitting me.  
“Drop. Your. Weapon,” the officer repeated for a third time.  
“How about no?” she yelled as she slit my throat and dropped me.  
The last thing I heard was the officer opening fire, and Terezi screaming.


	19. Terezi: Scream

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm terrible at writing from these two's perspectives I'm so sorry why are you even reading this. Even so, thank you for reading this!

Chapter 19: Terezi: Scream.

I screamed, that’s all I could do.  
I saw Mindfang quickly draw her knife across Vriska’s throat and her body spun before hitting the ground, face first. Her head smacked the floor almost as hard as she had when she fell down the stairs.  
Marquise Serket was shot, and after her body hit the floor I was at Vriska’s side, kneeling next to her and screaming.  
She couldn’t die like this, she couldn’t.  
“We need an ambulance, now!” the officer yelled into his receiver before running over and applying pressure to the wound in her throat, but not too much pressure so she could still breathe.  
Judging from the looks of it, it hit an artery, but not her windpipe. At least she wouldn’t drown in her own blood, if she didn’t bleed out.  
I didn’t even realize my mom had come over until I felt her hand on my shoulder and barely heard her yell for me to stop screaming.  
I couldn’t stop, I couldn’t stop the sound coming out of my throat until my voice grew hoarse and I needed oxygen.  
I sobbed instead.  
The ambulance came a long fifteen minutes after the call, and there was so much blood everywhere that I was getting nauseous. The sight, the smell, everything about it was nauseating.  
The paramedics took her away, and Mom and I followed behind it to the hospital. They made us sit in the waiting room for three fucking hours before the doctor came out, his face looking grim.  
“How is she?” Mom asked cautiously. I couldn’t speak.  
“She’ll be alright in time, but the final hit to her head caused some amnesia,” he said carefully.  
I felt my heart drop to my stomach. Amnesia?  
Mom nodded, “Can we see her?”  
The doctor nodded, “She most likely won’t remember you though.”  
She nodded and we rose to our feet. My head was swimming, she couldn’t remember us?  
We walked upstairs to her room to see her staring at the wall, complaining to a nurse how bored she was. She looked almost normal, but her eyes were full of confusion.  
Mom wrapped her arm around my shoulders, just like she had when I had first went blind and she was guiding me around. It’s been a comfort thing ever since.  
The nurse directed us to stand at the foot of the bed because Vriska couldn’t move her head in case she tore her stitches.  
We reached her line of vision and confusion completely overtook her face, “Who are these people?”  
I could practically feel my heart break. Mom spoke first, “I’m Tally Pyrope, and this is my daughter Terezi, who you’ve been with romantically for almost a year now Vriska.”  
She furrowed her eyebrows, “I have a girlfriend? I hate not being able to remember anything because that’s something that I should be able to remember.”  
I opened my mouth to speak but no words came out. She looked concerned but also bored, “What’s up with you…. Terezi right?”  
I couldn’t speak, I could only rush forward and wrap my arms around her torso, burying my face in her shoulder.

~====<3====~

They released her a week later, and she still had no recollection of what happened, or of anything for that matter. All that she could remember was everything up until the summer after she graduated high school.  
Her mother was dead, and she was completely indifferent about it. After we explained what she did, she cheered and vowed to dancer on her mother’s grave while saying that she refused to attend her mother’s funeral.  
I stepped out of the car and turned to watch Vriska’s mouth drop open in shock at our house for the second time this year. The first time it had been amusing, this time it was just depressing.   
I showed her around the house again, and she stared in wonder at all the nice things we had. I had to remind her that my mother was a famous prosecutor and her services were not cheap.  
I knew we were well off, I never took it for granted after being friends with Sollux, who came from a very poor family.   
Vriska’s mom had been well off before she left home, my mom told me, but after that and her involvement in crime, she was very poor.  
Mom told me that Vriska and Aranea’s dad was in the same piracy ring, but ended up taking off after Vriska was born, by pure accident. He “didn’t want to help raise two kids that never should have existed,” according to what she heard.  
While Mom and I were visiting, Vriska confessed to my mom for the first time and to me for the second time her mom’s abuses and neglect. How Aranea raised her, not her mom. How after Aranea left for college and medical school she had to raise herself. How her mom was strung out on drugs for most of her childhood, and due to them her mom would beat her black and blue.  
She also had been interviewed by a psychiatrist in vain because her weight had been very low when they checked her weight. When we were asked about it the only thing I could think of that could cause it was her making herself sick because she ate like a fully grown man.   
Naturally she couldn’t remember. She did, however, say that she used to binge and purge in high school as a self control thing, despite thinking it was a waste of food. She had no control over her life, so she took control of that.   
We avoided the topic of our relationship. It was too painful for me to talk about and Vriska couldn’t remember anything about it. She said at first that she could see why she would date me based solely on appearances and that I didn’t take her bullshit. It made my heart ache.  
We ate dinner, and Vriska elected to take the couch until she got her memory back. I didn’t sleep that night. I wasn’t used to sleeping alone, and my bed was cold without her there.  
The next day, I owned her at Call of Duty for awhile before we teamed up on multiplayer and owned everyone else. Sollux came over with Mituna for awhile, and they re-introducted themselves to her.  
“How many people have I met since I was in high school?” she asked.  
“I have no idea Serket, I’m assuming a lot.”  
“That amazes me, because most people hate me.”  
I rolled my eyes, “I don’t, and niether does Latula, Mom, Sollux, or Mituna.”  
“Okay? I don’t even remember them.”  
“And Karkat, Nepeta, Equius, and Tavros don’t hate you either.”  
“Why though? I’m a huge bitch.”  
I shrugged, “You grew on us.”  
She laughed, “If only I could grown on a lot of people. Maybe then I’d have more friends.”  
It took everything I had not to rest my head on her shoulder and say “You have a lot of friends and I love you, what more can you need?”


	20. Vriska: Remember

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> SORRY THAT’S SO SAPPY AND CLICHE I HAD TO.

Chapter 20: Vriska: Remember

 

It’s been two weeks and I still can’t remember a damn thing from college.  
Right now I was laying on the couch with my head resting next to Terezi’s leg. Sollux was sitting on the floor listening to music.   
Terezi was going on and on about school, which started in a week. If I can’t remember anything by then, my doctor was requiring me to take a year off.  
I was reading a book about pirates in the Indian Ocean way back in the 1700s when Terezi tapped my book, causing it to fall on my face.  
“Ow!” I yelped.  
“Shit! Sorry!” she ran a hand over my face after picking up the hardcover book. It was soothing.  
She kept running her hand over my forehead and eyes and she snickered, “You look like if you were a cat, you would be purring.”  
I snorted, “Who am I? Nepeta?”  
She laughed and I joined her.  
I honestly wished I could remember her like she could remember me. She infuriated me sometimes, but I still liked her. I haven’t actually liked anyone in my current memory that I hadn’t just gotten with and manipulated. I didn’t want to manipulate her.  
I hadn’t told her yet either, I wasn’t sure how she would react.  
Sollux, Mituna, and Latula left around 8 to the Captor household for the night. Terezi’s mom was working late. Terezi and I resigned to slaughtering people at Call of Duty. My username was arachnidsGrip and Terezi’s was gallowsCalibrator.  
After owning people, we scrolled through YouTube watching random videos of whatever we felt like. We ended up watching Suits on Netflix, Terezi’s favorite show.  
As we sat there, sitting so close to each other that I could feel the heat of her arm without even touching her. I wanted to curl up against her, and this impulse was too strong to be of this little crush I had.   
I tried once again to think back to this last school year, nothing. It was blank.  
I felt the familiar surge of rage toward my mother for the whole fiasco that ended in my inability to remember.   
I turned my head to look at Terezi, who was so engrossed in her show that she didn’t notice me. I loved to look at her, how her face was angular, but soft. How her pale eyes matched her pale skin. I even loved the scars around her eyes and her arms, how they were unique just to her. Her hair was a lovely black, and out of the few times I’ve touched it, I knew it was very soft.  
In a stroke of sudden emotion that I could not describe, I leaned my head on her shoulder. She tensed for a moment, long enough for me to think I did something wrong, before relaxing. I heard her sigh contently, so I did too.  
We sat like this for awhile, perfectly comfortable watching Terezi’s stupid show. After about twenty minutes, I yawned, “This is boring Terezi, is there anything else we could do?”  
“I don’t know, I’m perfectly content doing this.”  
I sighed and sat up, looking her dead in the face, “You know, you piss me off to no end, but I still spend most of my day wanting to kiss you.”  
He face flamed, “R-Really?”  
I smirked, “Yes you crazy girl.”  
A crazy smile crept onto her face, and she showed all of her shiny white teeth, “Well, what’s stopping you Serket?”  
I swear she kissed me first.  
It was a long kiss, but a sweet one. No biting, no tongue, nothing. It was new to me, just pressing my lips to someone lightly over and over.   
That’s when I started to remember.  
I had been expecting a sudden rush of memory, but instead a few memories came back at a time. I remember meeting Terezi, Gamzee attacking her, his trial, Sollux and Mituna’s accident, her self harming and my relapse into my bulimia, kissing Terezi for the first time.  
My mom locking us in the basement and slitting my throat.   
I remembered everything bit by bit and within a few moments I felt my eyes well up and spill over. Stupid emotions.  
Terezi pulled away, “What’s wrong?”  
“Nothing is wrong Pyrope, I can remember.”  
She looked utterly shocked, “You… remember?”  
“Isn’t that what I just said? Oh and I am going to dance on my mother’s grave, and after your shithead ex dies I’ll dance on his too.”  
She blinked a few times before pulling me into her arms and kissing me with all she had.  
We fell backward onto the couch, with her on top of me. She was warm, and God she was a good kisser.   
I could remember everything. I could remember secretly making out while her mom and Latula were at work, I remember doing… other things back in our dorm.  
I really hoped that’s where this was going, because she was that damn good at kissing.  
She bit my lower lip and sucked on it, and I felt like someone had set fire to my lower abdomen. I dug my nails into her shoulders, and she rolled her hips down.   
I swear I was dead silent.  
Okay, maybe I wasn’t, Maybe within a few minutes I was moaning pathetically with her biting on my neck and marking what was hers. Her mom was going to kill us.  
Oh well, live in the moment right?  
And at this particular moment, I was pushing her upright and pointing upstairs. She nodded and pulled me up off the couch and we locked lips again, ungracefully pulling each other up the stairs and into her, our, room.  
She pushed me on the bed and resumed her earlier position straddling me and biting my neck.  
Oh hell no was I going to let her dominate me.  
I rolled her over and assumed the same position, marking what was mine all over her neck.  
Clothes were shed, pleasure was taken and given, and far too soon we were curled up around each other and Terezi was falling asleep in my arms.  
“I love you Terezi, past, present, and future,” I muttered.  
“I love you too you cliche ass,” she laughed.  
I laughed, she laughed, and we fell asleep.

 

~End~


End file.
